Silly Secret
by AnotherLostChance
Summary: Beware! My first attempt at a fanfiction. Temari and her brothers visit Konoha together and that's only the beginning of trouble. Friendship, betrayal, a few menage-a-trois. ShikaTema. Too bad I don't work for Kishimoto! Enjoy the read!
1. Secret Training

**DISCLAIMER:** I know it's sad and unfortunate but I do NOT own any of the characters that appear in this story –except a few towards the end. Kishimoto created and owns everything that is related to NARUTO!

**Authors note:** This story includes multiple point of views (gomenasai T-T don't hate me) and a few flashbacks, they are marked obviously with _- -memory flashback- -_ and end with - - _end _- -. Thoughts are represented in _italics_ and any sort of writing is in **bold**. Hope it's understandable. Ahead is some OOC and twisted (re-imagined sounds better) storytelling. Enjoy.

. . . .

Temari was in one of her moods, she felt weak and grumpy that no matter how hard she had been training, was unable to achieve her desired goal. Although let's face it to master a jutsu in three days was a goal highly unlikely to pull off, even for a ninja with her talent. The Sand shinobi had been at it for fourteen hours non-stop with no breaks, no food and no chakra left to continue and she was overcome with frustration.

As a matter of fact her physical and mental condition didn't concern her at all because all she wanted was to master the technique and quickly. For this one jutsu would give her an edge over her enemies and she knew that this particular jutsu would greatly aid her and her team in battle if she had no options left to turn to.

Two weeks prior to her training today Temari had been cleaning one of the underground rooms in the palace where Gaara now resided alone and she stumbled upon secret documents left behind by Lady Chiyo. These documents didn't look like anything special; they were dull, out of date and hard to read. Temari found herself yawning and almost sleep reading as she slowly flicked through the pages her eyes awoke and immediate shock caught her in a trance upon her discovery.

She had indeed found documents which contained various secret and disbanded jutsu. Her realisation was sudden; she thought of her current skill level and decided to challenge herself to master the most helpful yet dangerous jutsu in her spare time. The sand shinobi had already mastered a few minor jutsu without her brother's knowing, and while she was proud of her own achievements she hated hiding these secret training sessions from her own relatives.

Temari didn't have a lot of spare time; she had missions just like every other ninja in the Sand village and only given the minimum amount of free time. Not that she needed it; she wasn't a social whore or an adrenalin junkie or anything out of the ordinary. One of her favourite activities was simply to read. Fiction was her entertainment and she liked poetry and if she were in the mood, status reports on failed missions, where she would critically analyse how the team could have minimized harm and casualties. Temari despised losing; she wanted nothing more than to end the suffering for those who lost their precious ones. Perhaps that was one of the reasons it was so difficult to befriend her. She knew that it was a weakness to have companions and you as a ninja should only rely on yourself.

Her other activity of sort was every now and again she would visit her brother Kankuro who lived in his own apartment and Gaara who was now the Kazekage who resided in the palace. Gaara and Kankuro were closer to each other having had more interaction between them since they were young boys where Temari hadn't; she always wanted to be the 'sister' to her siblings but had to 'act' very distant from a very young age.

Sabaku no Temari decided it best to keep this extra training a secret from her brothers, for as long as possible as she knew that they had their own problems, own missions and their own lives to take care of, especially Gaara who had a lot of responsibilities becoming Kazekage at such a young age. She knew that if they would find out what she was up to, there would surely be severe punishment.

In spite of this she didn't falter in her decision and swore she would continue to practise and master the one's own life reincarnation jutsu that had been used to revive Gaara at the cost of Lady Chiyo's life; this however was easier said than done as this involved extreme precision and patience. To add to the difficulties, this was a medical jutsu and Temari was not a medical ninja. Her techniques were limited, her weapon a fan and specializing in long range combat, but Temari refused to give up.

She had worked hard in the training field, trying to master the jutsu but hour after hour she seemed to be getting worse as fatigue took over her body, soul and spirit. It had after all been a long day with a mission early in the dawn of the morning followed by her training that lasted till midnight; Temari accepted defeat and packed away her gear and headed home.

After a wash and some well deserved nutrition she dressed herself in a night gown and headed toward her bedroom window and found herself sitting on the window sill looking at the stars and the brilliant moon that truly captivated her soul.

She had always been fond of stargazing; it was another subjective hobby that she chose not to share with others and had a soothing effect on her. Regardless of her exhaustion she would always make time for her stargazing. To her stargazing had become somewhat of a ritual of sorts, which was bizarre and foreign to her as she was far from being cultural but she knew she was different from others anyway.

As Temari would look to the stars almost every night waiting, wishing and hoping to glimpse a falling star to make a wish, a wish that remained constant but never seemed to come true. To her, this wasn't simply a wish; it had become an obsession, a need, a craving for her heart to escape from the pain she had learnt to lock away inside her soul.

Temari had wondered how she had let herself become so isolated from the world and why didn't she have things that most teenagers her age seemed to take for granted. So many questions raced through her mind constantly and she found herself in an alternate reality;

Where she was envied for being the most popular girl in the village.

Where she didn't come off as a tempestuous bitch to anybody.

Where her brothers were living with and sharing their everyday lives with hers.

Where she had what she longed for, friends.

At some time she had fallen asleep on window sill, her body had remained motionless she was lucky that she didn't fall from her window because in her dream she was anything but motionless, she was living a nightmare of her past. As a child, she had a rough childhood; rough wouldn't even begin to describe the terrors of her past time but this she would never share with anyone.

A long time ago, they had been the perfect family with a mother, a father, a daughter and the youngest son. Temari scarcely remembers this glimpse of happiness before it was forcefully taken away, never to be found again.


	2. Slipped Away

For the first three years of her life, Temari's father had been supportive until he allowed his hunger for power to cloud his judgement and for experimental reasons chose to put a monster within his third child, the unborn baby Gaara. He had heard of these monsters who had unlimited power and how they managed to harvest their power by sealing them inside newborn babies and wanted nothing more but to have more this power at his disposal. This was however against Karura's wishes, Temari's mother. For the sealing of the monster inside her womb would cost her dearly. Karura didn't care for herself but as a mother wanted to protect her unborn baby as this would ultimately cause him unimaginable pain.

When she attempted to elope with her two children Temari and Kankuro, they didn't get very far when all the stress and fear within Karura caused her water to break and she knew her fate was sealed with baby Gaara on the way. Temari had only just turned three years old and was far too young to grasp the situation, with Kankuro still so little he could do nothing but weep in confusion.

Temari had seen the emotions in her mother's eyes and shared her fear and knew that she couldn't do anything for her mother. She reached out and placed her hand on her mother's. This action comforted Karura and Temari tried her hardest to contain the tears that had begun to form in her tiny eyes. Her mother saw the determination in her daughter's teary eyes as she spoke to her gently.

"You are strong and like me you must promise to protect your brothers, your village and the one you will lose your heart to. In three short years, you have grown so beautifully and it is with deep regret that I must leave this world before I have the chance to see you ...my children, my beautiful c-children grow up" Overcome with grief Karura choked, trying to hold back the labour pains. As the pains passed she caught her breath and continued.

"Dearest Temari, my beautiful baby girl, could you do me a favour?"

"anythink..m-mommyh" with a shaky voice Temari replied to her mother.

"Tell Kankuro to be strong and follow his heart, strength has many forms and you will both find your own view of what real strength is. I want you to name your baby brother Temari and care for him; he will need your love and understanding to overcome his hardships that lie ahead of him and..".

Temari instantly responded with sobs "G..Gaara. Can we name him Gaara, mommyh?"

Karura tilted her head towards Temari who was behind her and nodded with a painful smile.

"Gaara, now that's a strong name and sounds oh so adorable to me.." Karura sensing that the retrieval squad were nearby, looked at her daughter with and matched the tears flowing down her cheeks and spoke slowly as if she knew her time was over.

"Temari, please don't forget me." Temari responded by hugging her mother from behind and wanted nothing more than to disappear with her.

Right at that moment, a team of men in dark clothing, with animal masks covering their faces appeared with Temari's father who was furious and had dragged Lady Chiyo along forcing her to seal the monster within his wife's womb before it was too late. Temari stood up in front of her mother, holding her arms to her side, forming a human wall of protection for her mother and yelped in vain.

"You...stay away.. you..I won't let anyone of ...you will not hurt my mommy!" Her words struggled to come out; overcome with such fear, and at that precise moment she saw her father walk up to her and then he slapped her face, he grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to face toward her mother.

"Your mommy has always hated you kids, just like me, you were our first mistake Temari and you forced your mother and me to get married, you kids are worthless, nothing but pawns to make us look good to other countries. This baby is nothing but a monster which will bring the Sand village great strength..."

Before he could finish his sentence Temari screamed "His name is Gaara and.. h-he is not a monster, dad..dy".

"How dare you, you little shit I should kill you for talking back to me" he grabbed her little body and threw her towards the ground by the retrieval squad. As they seized her, by orders of the Kazekage, Temari was forced to witness the sealing of the monster inside Gaara and to watch with horror as her mother's life painfully slipped away from her.

...

Temari woke up in a fright, covered in sweat and only after she made sure she had been dreaming she wiped her face. Tears were something that Temari could easily control; in her eyes she was too strong for her own tears. She remembered the time many years after her mother's murder questioning Kankuro about that night he told her he was too young to remember anything that happened. He at the time was around twelve years old and she had hoped that he remembered his own mother, even slightly.

She however envied Kankuro, for he had the choice to forget the ordeal where she would never be able to. Temari missed her mother deeply and reliving the same moment would cause her constant emotional and physical anguish. Simultaneously she would be happy to see her mother, because her mother's presence felt as if she was still alive and then fear would overtake her as she would see her mother slaughtered before her eyes every single time.

After a little while she realized that today was her first day off. Temari had requested week off, so she quickly planned out her day. She would go visit her mother's grave, then check up on her brothers, force her brothers to eat with her at a restaurant then followed by an intense training session. She found herself wondering about what to do with the rest of her time, maybe she would visit the Leaf village, or maybe she should try venturing to a new place where she was just another face in the crowd.

Besides it would be strange showing up at the Leaf village without a mission or at least a reason why. Temari tucked away her thoughts and focused on the day ahead.


	3. A Passing Thought

Shikamaru Nara woke up as always more tired than he was before going to sleep. He briefly questioned this theory but his laziness got the better of him and chose not to bother himself with thinking about something so stupid.

It was Tuesday, the day after Monday. For Shikamaru it was the second worst day of the week. He rose from his bed and began his daily routine which consisted of a shower, then getting dressed, followed by greeting his mother. Yoshino who always made mornings near unbearable before giving her son breakfast, then he would if he could be bothered find the strength to train, however he never had the will to train so instead he would watch the clouds, and dream of anything and everything.

Shikamaru of course knew his mother felt lonely when Shikaku wasn't around to take her orders so instead she would bombard her boy with her nagging, to the point where he would make up lies that he had to go see his friends when in actual fact he would visit Chouji or sometimes if he was beyond desperate, Ino. Shikamaru was still a boy who disliked lying to his mother, but after making the lies on the spot he would go through the trouble with turning the lies into truth, as he knew his mother would call the parents of whomever he said he would be visiting.

"What a drag!" Shikamaru told Chouji who was munching on some chips. Shikamaru would always smile at Chouji when he had chips, as it reminded him of the day he and Chouji became the best of friends, as they watched the clouds for the first time together.

"Oh Shikamaru, did you hear about the festival that the Sand village will be hosting fourteen days from now, I hear it's going to be held for a whole week."

"A whole week! What the heck for?" Shikamaru asked surprisingly.

"Yes a whole week, according to dad, they'll be hosting this festival as a surprise to Temari of the Sand, who you remember well dontcha?" Chouji asked with a smirk, before grabbing more chips and munching away.

Shikamaru looked at his friend with a non-responsive face and replied "I guess. But I don't understand what this festival is for." He leaned down looking at the sky thinking about the clouds and how much he longed to be one.

"I heard it's for her proposed engagement" Chouji looked at his friend seeking a response from him.

"Oh? I see, so Miss Troublesome went and found some guy to accept her constant whining" he said expressionless. In actual fact, Shikamaru was a master at hiding his feelings or so he thought anyway. He did feel a little sad to hear the news of the Sand ninja.

"I don't think she found this guy Shikamaru. This marriage was set up for her without her knowledge and she has no choice but to accept." Chouji spoke slowly with a gloomy tone in his voice. Chouji knew Shikamaru well, they had been best of childhood friends so he could sense Shikamaru's disguised disappointment.

Shikamaru looked at Chouji and sighed. "Well I have to get going then, sorry Chouji"

"What? Where are you going? You plan to save the day? You know very well how you feel for that girl!" Chouji almost raised his voice out of annoyance towards his stupid good friend.

"Chouji, you can't ask me all these questions, because you know I'm too lazy to answer them and I have a meeting with Lady Tsunade in twenty minutes, okay!" as Shikamaru added the final "okay" Chouji knew that Shikamaru was lying to himself but decided to let his friend go do whatever he had to do.

"Well, alright then! I'll come by yours on Friday; I hope you haven't forgotten about it cause it's the night of the eclipse and it won't appear again for many years" Chouji replied with a smile on his face, no doubt planning something deviant and headed towards his favourite restaurant for breakfast.

Shikamaru walked street after street deep in thought. He has been too busy to realize he had walked into Shino, with Kiba and Hinata who had been painting the back walls of the building.

"I'm sorry" Shikamaru bowed to Shino walking backwards with his eyes closed when he hit the wall behind him. Shino was suspicious at Shikamaru's over the top polite behaviour, and then replied to him.

"Umm Shikamaru? Its fine, are you okay? You backed into the wall we just painted"

Shikamaru stood in shock when he saw his back was covered in white paint and he couldn't help but think about his mother who would without a doubt kill him when he went home.

"Oh man! What a drag! Oh well no worries I'm sure I'll be dead by the end of today so I apologize again for walking into you Shino."

Kiba was roaring with laughter. He couldn't help himself it was after all a scene you'd normally never see the genius Shikamaru getting himself into. Hinata was worried for Shikamaru and decided to speak

"Shikamaru-kun, what has you so distracted you walked into Shino and then into the wall? Is something bothering you?"

Shikamaru smiled. _Boy she's such a nice girl; I hope Kiba takes good care of her, when he finally confesses. _He glanced towards Kiba who had stopped laughing and was looking at Shikamaru with curiosity evident in his eyes.

"Hinata-chan, thank you for your concern but really I am fine, I just haven't been sleeping much lately. Please excuse me I have a meeting with Lady Tsunade."

Another blatant lie, Shikamaru realized and began walking away from the three of them. Hinata looked at Shino, then Kiba.

"I think we need to find out what's wrong with him, it could have something to do with the festival and Temari-chan".

"Yeah sounds good Hinata, but let's finish painting these walls yeah?" Kiba smiled when Team Kurenai all agreed on this and continued painting the walls white when Kiba began complaining about the walls already being white to begin with.

Shikamaru continued walking towards the tower not caring about looking like a fool with the white paint on the back of his uniform. He was remembering when he first laid eyes the bothersome female Temari, it was at the beginning of the round one of the chunin exams.

_- -memory flashback- -_

It was before the exam began, the time when they were all together in the room and looking at all the colourless thugs who didn't seem to be close to their age at all. Shikamaru was looking through the crowd to analyse their faces and where they came from when found himself gazing upon a unique blond girl in a violet garment. Her hairstyle was out of the ordinary with four pig tales.

_Two pig tales would have been fine, but four? _He then looked at her body and saw she had a huge fan, he thought to himself. _A fan?_ _How can you use that fan as a weapon? Surely it must change into a sword or something! It looks heavy.. She looks sort of interesting.. _

Before he could continue his thoughts and move onto her comrades, Naruto the fool had to open his big mouth and threaten to kick everyone's butt! Naruto had brought everyone's attention to the nine Leaf village rookies who stood there looking quite vulnerable if he was feeling the vibe of the onlookers correctly.

Temari had noticed Shikamaru's eyes seconds before the boy in orange started yelling out empty threats and she had stared right back at him. When Shikamaru realized Temari was looking right through him, his eyes met hers in an unbreakable gaze and for a brief moment he felt uncomfortable and broke his eye contact with her.

Temari however kept staring at this pineapple head and was having fun. However her attitude soon after turned sour when that Uzumaki freak had finished his piece and then the girl with pale-pink hair was yelling louder back than he had, she couldn't help but feel angry towards this group. Temari noticed how colourful and innocent the girls of the teams had looked and then quickly felt a sharp stab of jealousy as she noticed how close these kids were to each other, but this was simply a _passing thought at the time._

_- - end - -_

Shikamaru reached Lady Tsunade's office and knocked on the door and Shizune allowed him to enter. Shizune was holding the little pig which oinked in laughter at Shikamaru's obvious wardrobe malfunction. Shikamaru felt the pig laughing at him and gave it a short cold stare before Tsunade began talking with him about some mission that had to do with the Sand siblings.

_Oh great! Why is everything leading back to that troublesome female today?_ Shikamaru thought to himself.

"Shikamaru are you listening!" Tsunade was obviously impatient with the lazy shinobi. _That's what you get for summoning me so early in the morning._

"My apologies Hokage-sama, continue" Shikamaru hid his sarcasm well.

"As I was saying. Temari, Kankuro and Gaara will be arriving here Friday morning and you are to guide Temari. Remember she is the diplomatic liaison between Sunagakure and Konohagakure after all. However you are to guide her only, not her brothers. Gaara has requested this. Kankuro will act as Gaaras sole bodyguard. I'm unaware of the reason behind this so don't even ask Shikamaru."

_This is odd. _"As you wish Lady Tsunade, please excuse me" he left the office after she granted him permission to do so.


	4. Foolish

Temari enjoyed her morning. She had met up with Gaara and Kankuro and they agreed to meet her for dinner at the restaurant she had chosen. She had thought it was rather odd that they agreed so easily to her request, but simply told them not to be late and be there at 6pm. The time was 12:03 therefore Temari decided she would squeeze in some training.

Her training had become a necessary outlet for her frustrations on life, she would normally just throw her fan around and be done with her targets but after a while she found that she felt nothing. The reason she undertook this special training was to be off assistance to others, she wanted to surprise her allies and increase the success of achieving the mission without any casualties. Temari enjoyed the sudden rush of feelings rushing through her.

She had been trained to feel no emotion since she began at the academy and this worked for her until the alliance with Konoha was established. Their methods were so different to Suna's. It was alien to her to show concern to anyone, but step by step she began to accept that lazy Leaf Shinobi, Nara Shikamaru as her ally and then later, as her friend.

Brushing her thinking to the side she managed to her astonishment mould her chakra using only her hands. Her second step was to apply the chakra to a living being that needed healing. She found a little cat who she could tell was in pain. She walked over to the little creature and gently picked him up.

"You foolish cat! I bet you were trying to show off to your friends, am I right?" she was chuckling "Well you're lucky that I need someone to practise on.. Foolish cat" Temari sounded so childish insane for talking to an animal and giving it a name, but she didn't care much and began forming her chakra in her hands. Obviously the cat had broken its leg. She could tell because the bone above the left frontal paw wasn't aligned with the rest.

Temari began focusing more intensely her chakra and after an hour of struggling to keep the cat still, healed the animal. She patted the cat and put him down, who ran away with a twinkle in its eye. She looked at the colours of the sky only to realize the sun was setting,

"Oh great, I tell my brothers not to be late, what a hypocrite."

She ran to pack away her training gear and get ready for the dinner, ignoring the tenderness she felt in her hands. Temari was out of breath and had twelve minutes spare to get ready. She rushed to put on some makeup and then dashed out the door, only to be greeted by Gaara who had come to pick her up.

"Gaara! What are you doing here?" Temari asked Gaara who was looking up at his sister with a surprised look.

"Temari, I'm sorry I should have notified you but I wanted to pick you up personally and walk with you to the restaurant, it's not too safe out here for..pretty girls like yourself."

Temari laughed gently. _Gaara was worried about me? That makes me feel a little better._

"You know I can handle anyone who wants to take me on" she said in an over the top irritated way and she wondered why she had reacted like that. "By the way I'm not a pretty girl Gaara, I'm eighteen years old and that makes me an adult."

"I know Temari but regardless of that.. I want to walk with you. You sure do look lovely, you know." Gaara spoke as he approached Temari with a gentle hint of a smile, took her by the hand, amused by Temari's obvious disbelief, walked towards the restaurant together.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the restaurant. 6:59 on the clock and Kankuro had already arrived and reserved their seats. Temari was pleasantly shocked to find her brothers behaving so not like themselves but she decided to act like her-cold-untouchable-self by acting superior and protective like she always had to.

Then the date hit her it was Tuesday January 19th, Gaara's 15th birthday, she couldn't believe she had forgotten this day. The anniversary of her mother's death, no wonder she had that dream the night before.

She excused herself from her brothers and asked the waiters to bring out a cake for Gaara, to which they agreed to instantly. She then headed back to the table and acted like nothing had changed. Gaara and Kankuro were laughing and talking about battle formations.

_Great! My brothers are hopeless. But that is one of the reasons why I love them._ Temari thought to herself and was smiling.

Kankuro asked "So Gaara, what do you want for your birthday baby brother?"

Gaara simply stared back at Kankuro with confusion evident in his eyes

"Wait, it's my birthday?"

Temari had to allow a little mischievous giggle escape from her, entertained by her thoughtless brothers.


	5. The Pendant

"I forgot about my birthday, I've been so busy with paperwork and my duties as Kazekage ..I.. I completely forgot my own birthday" Gaara was finishing his sentence when.. he was genuinely surprised by the waiters who brought out the cake Temari had requested. Gaara was blushing, a little embarrassed but was smiling his rare smile that Temari and Kankuro were privileged to see.

Gaara hadn't always been the best behaved brother, since he was corrupted at a young age and was always isolated from his siblings, Temari in particular.

_- -memory flashback- -_

Kankuro had been allowed to be around Gaara but most times he knew Kankuro was scared of him because of the rumours he heard from the local children of the village. When Gaara tried a few times to reach his older brother only sometimes would he succeed to do so and would be undeniably happy. They would simply play together, silently side by side at the playground by the palace.

On one occasion when they were a little older Kankuro caught Gaara trying to steal a piece of jewellery. When Kankuro asked Gaara about it Gaara told him he wanted to give the necklace to Kankuro to give to Temari as a peace offering. He believed his father's words that Temari never wanted to see him, because he killed her mother and she wanted to kill him herself. In spite of this he wanted to reach her, desperately he did.

Kankuro acted as the older brother for the first time and felt really good about being the middle child, he apologized to the store keeper and handed over his entire allowance for this little piece of jewellery that had such an emotional impact on Gaara. As he returned to Gaara, he looked at the pendant. It really was just a simple piece, nothing special. He saw the aqua butterfly and then saw a tiny red hearts on the wings and an inscription that read "Forever". Gaara's eyes lit up instantly when he saw his brother with the pendant, however unknown to Kankuro this was the last time he would see his brother Gaara with such genuine kindness, for years to come.

As they walked towards the palace where they all lived, Gaara asked Kankuro why Temari was never allowed to spend time with him to which Kankuro had no answer. He never saw his sister either; she never wanted to leave her room. He was saddened by the fact he really didn't know much about her himself, although he remembered seeing her, only once.

Two years ago he had just turned five years old and the day had begun like every other day and Kankuro had returned from pre-school, as he walked inside the palace putting his bag away in the hallway he saw her. She was trying to run towards him. "K-Kankuro" was all he could hear, her voice was unfamiliar to him because he had never heard or see her before and why was she crying?

He has stood in place motionless, he didn't know what was what and before he could reach out to her she was snatched away by their father and taken away, her sobbing eventually fading into nothingness. He never understood what had happened but that image of her stained his mind.

Kankuro decided not to share this even with Gaara fearing it could upset him as he realized they had made it home. Gaara wanted to go meet up with their uncle Yashamaru made Kankuro pinky swear to give the necklace to Temari himself and to tell her it was from her brothers Gaara and Kankuro. He headed towards the front gate and that's when he saw her. His sister was sitting by her closed bedroom window staring at the sky. He ran inside and up the stairs and all the way down the long hallway to her bedroom door.

Trying to catch his breath he asked for permission to enter her room.

"s-STAY AWAY!" was all he heard from her.

Kankuro was surprised at her reaction. He felt angry and decided to fulfil the promise he had made Gaara, regardless of how Temari was treating him.

Kankuro let himself in and was a little startled to find the lights off and the sight of Temari on the floor huddled in the corner. She had drawn the curtain across messily leaving a small gap that let the moonlight peek through, _did she like this darkness?_ He closed the door and noticed through the small gap, a lock on her window and wondered why that was there.

"Temari-chan, I'm sorry to enter your room without your permission but I wante...no I was asked to give you this little gift, it's from me and Gaara and we want you to know we are here when you need us".

He put the unwrapped pendant on her bed and turned to leave when he heard Temari let out a tiny almost unheard sob. Kankuro stopped suddenly, then turned and walked all the way towards her. He leaned down to her on the ground and pulled her into an embrace.

It happened without him thinking or even knowing what he was doing, when he heard Temari crying so weakly something inside of him snapped. He didn't care that this was a sister he hardly knew, he didn't care that she never seemed to bother with him or Gaara, he didn't care about her until that second.

When Kankuro had hugged her he felt she was skin and bones and he heard a chain rattling, he looked back to the floor to see that Temari's ankle was chained to the floor and only had enough chain to move to her window and back to her space on the floor by her bed. She had been trying to hide the chain from Kankuro but what for reason he wondered to himself.

Kankuro was confused; surely _this wasn't what his own father would do this his own child?_

"Thank you." Temari spoke weakly; her messy hair down covered every bit of her face.

"You must leave me now..father will be coming"

When Kankuro reached in closer to Temari he gently brushed away her hair only to be shocked to see that Temari didn't look anything like he remembered her to be. She was not only undernourished but she was bruised all over her face and had crusted lips and her eyes were near to lifeless, only a tiny sparkle of this girl remained and Kankuro felt the guilt of being the only brother who didn't seem to have any difficulties being himself.

"Where's the key Temari-chan?" he asked Temari placing his hands on her hollow shoulders.

"Please hide now..Daddy's here"

At that moment the door was opened and Kankuro for the first time in his life, was frozen still, petrified with fear.

- - _end_ - -

As Gaara blew out all the candles Kankuro asked him again what he wanted for his birthday present.

"I want to see our allies in Konoha with you and Temari and I want us to watch the Eclipse together".

Temari was stunned "Uh. Okay."

Kankuro looked like such a fool with his mouth wide open and his piece of cake that he had forked up into his spoon dropped onto the plate. Hysterical Temari, Gaara and Kankuro laughed themselves silly until they were reminded to act appropriately within the restaurant.

"Oops, sorry" Kankuro apologized on their behalf.

"So it's been decided then? We're visiting Konoha together?" Gaara asked with determination in his voice. Temari and Kankuro nodded their heads simultaneously agreeing at the same time.

"We're leaving first thing tomorrow and we'll reach Konoha by Friday morning."

Temari found herself wondering what that lazy boy Nara had been up to. They had gotten closer to each other over the years and Shikamaru had become somewhat important to her and she wasn't sure why but she was thinking about him more frequently and it truth it annoyed her. She quickly deserted her pondering and paid for the dinner and walked home side by side with her siblings, hand in hand.


	6. Annoyed

Shikamaru reluctantly accepted his orders from Lady Tsunade but was not happy at all, why was it always him that had to guide that knucklehead, Temari around Konoha. She had been there time and again, she knew where everything was located and she had even found where Shikamaru's house was much to his dismay. So why did he have to be her guide this time around.

He went home and waited for Friday to come. He was looking forward to seeing the siblings; they had become good friends of his over the years, especially Temari and him. They had this yo-yo kind of friendship, he would save her, she would save him, they would argue and he would like the challenges she would give him. He fell asleep and before he realized it was Friday morning. After his every day morning routine he waltzed towards the front gate, found a place to sit down and waited. He looked at the sky and occasionally would check if Temari's gang was approaching and then would return to glare at the sky. It was around ten when they finally showed up.

Shikamaru was annoyed; he had after all been waiting for two and a half hours. Kankuro was the first to spot Shikamaru who had some girl with big round glasses and messy blond hairy standing by him. He saw her giving something to Shikamaru and then ran off in a hurry, and he let out a loud laugh.

Temari was annoyed too because Kankuro had been flirting with some girl at a rice ball stand and because of that they were late. She hadn't slept over the past three days as she had gone training when her brothers were resting, trying to perfect that one jutsu.

Somehow Kankuro's laughter eased Temari's and Shikamaru's annoyance.

"Hey troublesome woman" Shikamaru smiled his 'smartass' smile.

As he looked at her he saw she was still a pretty gi..woman even beautiful. He began to feel a little tingle in his chest and mind. _Calm yourself hormones._

"Crybaby, there you are, long time no see" Temari returned the smile with a near devilish look on her face.

She looked at him with his cheesy smile and laughed to herself. _Why am I happy to see you Lazy?_

"Has not! Has it?.."

"It's been almost a year actually" Temari butted in, becoming instantly irritated. Did he not realize they hadn't seen each other for so many months. Maybe he never thought of her like she thought of him.

Shikamaru had no smart reply to her. He did notice that they all had indeed grown physically, but they still looked almost the same as they did many months ago.

"Can you take us to the hotel now?" Temari demanded.

"Your wish is my command" he replied with a tacky bow, which he didn't mean to do.

Temari felt a little silly and rude, she knew that it wasn't her right to demand that of him as they hadn't seen each other in such a long time but to her defensive she was about to cave in from exhaustion. Temari told Shikamaru not to worry, she could find her way to the hotel herself and ran off before Kankuro, Gaara or Shikamaru could reply. They all shared the same thought _she's very weird today_.

Temari had run far enough from her brothers and Shikamaru before she began feeling dizzy, a combination of drowsiness, hunger and trying to run on energy she simply didn't have in her system. When she stopped running, she leaned up against one of the walls of the building. She had no idea where she was and tried to control her breathing and stay awake. The bag she was carrying in her hand suddenly weighed her down like concrete, so she dropped it.

"Hey Temari is that you?"

Temari heard the familiar voice but shrugged it off as she believed she had begun hallucinating. She felt incredibly heavy, and her eyes were beginning to shut on their own, fighting against Temari's will. She collapsed right there on the street.

"What the hell?" Chouji panicked seeing Temari falling down so suddenly. He didn't know how to determine what the cause for her falling down so suddenly so he followed his intuition; he picked her up and her huge heavy fan and ran towards Konoha hospital.


	7. At the Hospital

Sakura had a slow day at the hospital; she was doing her rounds and carefully checked on every patient, there were only about five patients in total so she had completed her duties fairly early. Although the day was slow she didn't really mind because it was a gorgeous day outside and she wished her shift to end so she could be out there, soaking up the sun herself. Her inner-Sakura on the other hand was screaming because she was so bored to be at the hospital and she almost demanded that someone, anyone would get sick or hurt or just something to fill the time with.

Sakura had gone to the water cooler by the reception area to get a drink of water before she saw Chouji who charged through the front door nearly screaming for help. She ran towards Chouji who was holding a girl wearing a black robe with a red sash around her waist. Chouji was obviously frightened when Sakura asked what happened.

"I was just.. and I saw.. and she.. then I.. ran"

Chouji managed to spit out and then Sakura asked the nurses for a stretcher to put her on for she didn't know what exactly had happened. Chouji lay Temari down on the stretcher and Sakura suddenly recognized the girl. As they entered into the emergency room, Chouji ran out of the hospital room before Sakura could ask him about the girl. Ino was about to take her leave for the day when she saw Sakura needed her help she jumped at the chance to help with the patient who happened to be Temari.

Chouji who was nearly screaming, knew that he needed to notify Shikamaru immediately. He ran everywhere to in hopes of locating Shikamaru who was nowhere to be found.

He ran into Neji and Rock Lee and begged them to help him search for Shikamaru, they agreed to this and spread out.

Lee found Sai who agreed to help by looking from the sky, although this would be time consuming for him.

Neji on the other hand found Kiba who managed to track Shikamaru's scent, with some help from the paint, to the front gate. Kiba jumped on Akamaru and raced towards the front gate and found Chouji was on his way to the front gate.

It was the last place he had thought to look because he had forgotten if Temari was here then she wouldn't have come alone, she would be with her brothers and she must have gone ahead when she was attacked by someone in the village. Chouji was puzzling all the possibilities when he realized Kiba had offered him a ride on Akamaru's back in which Chouji reluctantly agreed. He felt awkward riding a dog, with another man no less, still there was no time to waste.

Meanwhile, Temari had gained a little energy and woke up surprised to see Sakura and Ino trying to figure out what was the matter with her.

Temari looked at Sakura and spoke slowly

"I'm sorry Sakura for scaring you like this. Hi Ino." Sakura looked at Temari as she had begun to speak and Ino turned her head slightly towards her.

"There is nothing wrong with me girls, I'm merely exhausted from travelling and not getting enough rest" Temari stated calmly and drifted off again.

Sakura let out a deep breath. To see Temari she had been startled to say the least, but to not have any information on what was wrong with her was unknown territory to her and Ino. Ino stared at Sakura's shocked facials as she removed Temari's gloves to see her knuckles and palms were blistered, bleeding and heavily inflamed. She instantly began applying her chakra to Temari's hands but needed to know what had caused her to faint, and how she could ignore the pain she must have endured.

When Akamaru reached Shikamaru and Kankuro at the front gate they couldn't help themselves but laugh at the sight of Kiba and Chouji riding the gigantic dog together. They had looked purely wrong and Gaara just stared at the trio with no expression on his face. Shikamaru noticed that Chouji had a genuinely frightened expression on his face and he felt a small tinge of worry when Chouji who was gasping for air bawled

"It's.. Te..TEMARI".


	8. Sounding like an Elder

Together Sakura and Ino applied as much chakra as they could to the wounds but the healing was slow and didn't seem to be helping much, they refused speak to each other about what they thought had happened. They knew it wasn't good to speculate and so decided to keep their thoughts to themselves at least until Temari was well enough to leave the hospital.

Gaara barged into the room, followed by everyone who had helped Chouji to look for Shikamaru. They all were anxious to hear what had happened to Temari. Chouji finally decided it was time to tell everybody what he had seen.

"You see I was just walking to the store to buy me some ramen for lunch and then I saw this girl who I thought looked like Temari so I asked her if it was her and then she just fell onto the ground. Just like that -splat. I didn't know what to do, so I brought her to the hospital".

Shikamaru looked at Chouji who was clearly restless.

"At least you were there Chouji, thank you for reacting the way you did" which stunned everyone in the room.

Ino asked the boys to leave because the room was over-crowded. She allowed Kankuro, Gaara and Shikamaru to stay. The boys left the room and sat outside waiting on more news. Sakura began by asking Kankuro if they had been ambushed prior to arriving to Konoha to which Kankuro replied

"No."

They had all travelled together, rested well enough to continue travelling, had eaten when they were hungry and hadn't encountered a single enemy. Sakura decided that it would be best to not to tell her brothers about her condition but simply said

"Look boys, whatever happened she is burnt out and must rest for a while."

Shikamaru looked at Temari. He had let fear creep into his mind, he didn't know why he felt so protective of her, but he did.

"Is there anything you are keeping from us, Sakura-chan?" Sakura looked toward Gaara and shook her head hesitantly.

"Didn't you need to go see Lady Tsunade upon your arrival Gaara and Kankuro?" Ino questioned them.

They had forgotten all about doing that, Gaara decided to go to Lady Tsunade and to take Kankuro with him as his body guard. He looked toward Shikamaru.

"I trust you with her. Will be back soon" and left the room.

Sakura followed as she found herself feeling thirsty and excused herself to get a glass of water. Outside the room were all the boys that had helped and she told them that Temari would be fine and asked them to join her to get some water, to which they all agreed to instantly.

Shikamaru looked at Temari with genuine concern in his eyes, forgetting all about Ino who was still standing there. In what seemed to be an excruciating awkward silent moment for Ino she decided to speak.

"You know, she really is quite strong, Shikamaru, I never knew how strong she was. She's always acted so bitchy and like a total know-it-all but, her strength is astounding."

Shikamaru didn't know how to reply to Ino. He had always thought of the Sand kunoichi to be an unstoppable force; it wasn't in her nature to cause such a commotion.

"I'm aware that strength is defined in two ways. Physical strength and mental strength. And I know she possesses both, but right now to me she looks so fragile."

"She's just human after all Shikamaru" Ino replied with a sour tone and excused herself out of the room.

He gazed on her features, yeah she is a woman I know that, but she's always acted so darn proud and superior around him. He had been around her enough to understand that she had an invisible shell of armour around her, to protect herself and to keep everyone out.

He didn't know why but he stood up from the chair that was next to her bed, leaned down toward her and kissed her on the forehead and asked her to wake up soon and stop scaring the ones that love her. He sat back down in the chair next to her bed and continued to watch over her.

Temari opened her eyes and found that she was in hospital. She was confused and sat up too quickly and fell back to the bed. This woke Shikamaru who had fallen asleep on the chair.

"What the hell are you doing here? Where are we? What did you do?" Temari was screaming

"I did nothing Temari, you collapsed in the middle of the street! You tell me what happened to you, you're the reason we're all here" Shikamaru replied sternly.

Temari had to think before speaking, she couldn't tell him she was tired from training too much so she chose to lie.

"I've been having nightmares and it's hard for me to get much sleep, I guess it caught up with me" in a panicked tone "this never would have happened had you just listened to me and taken me to the hotel when I asked" which annoyed Shikamaru.

"If I had known you were so tired woman I would have taken you there, but it's not just me you scared with your damsel act, you scared the life out of Chouji and your brothers too you know".

_That's right! Where are my brothers? Are they alright? Where are they?_

Shikamaru could tell what she was thinking and answered her questions.

"Your brothers are fine, they had to go check in with Lady Tsunade, they trusted me with you and they will be returning shortly."

Temari sighed, and then Sakura opened the door and walked inside, towards the bed.

"Temari-chan, you gave us quite the scare young lady"

_Sakura you are younger than me and you're sounding like an elder._

"I'm sorry" Temari managed to say "I'm feeling much better now, am I free to leave?"

"Not so soon. Shikamaru do you mind leaving the room for a while, I'd really like a glass of water if you don't mind" Shikamaru didn't mind leaving the room, but getting Sakura a glass of water..

"So troublesome, fine. I'll be right back." Shikamaru left the room and Sakura walked over to Temari who sat upright in the bed, wondering what was wrong with Sakura. She touched Temari's hands and told her she had seen her wounded hands.

Temari felt a tingle of anxiety through her body but decided to half tell Sakura what she had been up to.

"So you were training with your hands, although you use a fan as a weapon?" Sakura asked unconvinced.

"Yes, that's right; it's a technique that I'm teaching myself."

Sakura knew she wasn't going to get any further information from the stubborn Sand village kuniochi and decided to stop questioning her.

"As long as you know what you are doing Temari, it looks as if your hands will take a while to heal, so no more training until they have healed completely, understood?"

"Yes of course Sakura-chan". She got herself out of the bed and headed towards the door. She hadn't realized that her hands were in such bad condition but decided that she wouldn't push herself anymore until she was all clear.

"I guess you are free to go then Temari" Sakura said with a smile. Temari thanked her politely and walked through the door to find a group of boys sleeping on the bench outside. Neji had Rock Lee leaning on him; Kiba was on the floor with Chouji and some other boy who she had no clue was.

They had obviously fallen of the small bench. She giggled on the sight, exploring how much they had grown since the last time she saw them. She decided a rude awakening was her right and then she whistled a loud ear piercing whistle and then began yelling.

"OKAY YOU LAZY BOYS, ENOUGH SLEEPING. YOU BETTER GET UP NOW OR I WILL MAKE SURE YOU WON'T LEAVE THIS HOSPITAL!"

The boys jumped up, thinking they were being summoned for war and within seconds Temari was squeezed by Chouji who was so relieved to see her awake and well. The other boys simply smiled as Temari thanked and apologized to them individually and one by one they left.

"Temari-chan will you join us tonight? Shikamaru and I are having a gathering at the highest ground of Konoha to watch the eclipse. The more the merrier really! Oh and bring lots of snacks" he was giggling when Temari agreed to join them and Chouji forced her agree twice to bring lots of snacks. Temari thought it was the least she could do because Chouji had been so worried about her and somehow managed to carry her and her fan too. She leaned in close to Chouji who had continued talking about snacks when..


	9. Unexpected Shopping Trip

Shikamaru walked around the corner to see Temari plant a kiss on Chouji's cheek. Chouji lit up like a Christmas tree and when he saw Shikamaru excused himself and told her what time Shikamaru would come by her hotel to pick her up.

Shikamaru was surprised to see Temari kiss Chouji, just like that. _For no reason at all, I mean yeah he had been the one to get her to the hospital and everything, so I guess he earned that kiss. But why didn't Temari treat me gently like she did with Chouji just then. _He walked up to Temari feeling somewhat unnecessary and asked if she was ready to leave. They walked out together towards her hotel which wasn't far from the hospital.

"So Chouji invited me to watch the eclipse with you guys tonight, is it alright if I crash your scene?"

"Yeah it's fine; Just don't forget the snacks 'kay? Chouji loves snacks!" he snapped at her.

The way Shikamaru answered her, she knew that he wasn't being himself but didn't bother herself with asking what was his problem was. All of a sudden Gaara came running towards Temari and gave her a huge hug asking her to forgive him. When she asked what was there to forgive him for, he told her that because he wished to come to Konoha to watch the eclipse and hadn't known that she was so tired.

"Listen Gaara, I was tired but now I am well rested and ready for the eclipse, besides I wanted to come here too." Kankuro walked up to Temari smoothly and then quickly hugged her.

"This is for being an idiot okay?" Temari just laughed. "baka."

She was enjoying all these guys paying her so much attention but she had reached her limit. She realized it was four pm and left to go to her room to get ready for tonight. A shower was what she needed and some clean clothes which she was looking forward to, until she remembered she didn't have her bag with her. That was the only thing that Chouji left behind when he found her, so she rushed outside, brushing past Shikamaru, Kankuro and Gaara who again were confused with her out of character behaviour.

"Where are you going Mari?" yelled Kankuro.

"Lost my bag! Must go buy clothes! And snacks! Among other things" she replied and added "No I don't need help thank you!" Shikamaru then decided to go home and get ready as well. Shikamaru walked home in a hurry. He didn't know why but for some strange reason he was excited for the eclipse. Gaara and Kankuro decided to have a quick power nap, to give them strength for the night ahead.

Temari had found a store that sold some decent clothing when she saw Ino inside. She hesitated but figured she'd be friendly and say hi to her. Temari approached Ino slowly, for her and Ino had never been friends, just girls who knew each other, but at the same time didn't know each other.

"Hi Ino" Temari said her name cautiously, then Ino turned around to see Temari.

"Oh you've been released from the hospital already? That's so good! How are you? What are you doing here? Are you shopping?"

Frankly Temari was surprised. Ino was being so open and friendly with her. She slowly answered her every question.

"Well actually I lost my bag with all my clothes inside, you see, so I must find something to wear for tonight and quickly" her cheeks turning slightly pink. Temari was not the type to do girlie things, although she had always wanted to try.

"Temari, I can help you find something to wear, I'm free right now and actually I'm shopping for myself too, but it gets boring if you have no one to show the clothes too" Temari was stunned but accepted Ino's kind offer.

They tried on many clothes complimenting each other's choices on hair style, beauty and fashion. Temari was unsure of her feelings at this point; she knew she had wanted a friend so long and she had wanted to do girlie things just like this, she wanted to keep having fun like this and began to wonder what Ino thought of her in return.

Ino and Temari chose to have a soda just to unwind their hyper-ness when Ino began telling Temari a few personal stories. Ino talked about how Sakura used to be Ino's best friend but they had a falling out because they liked the same guy and now they were always fighting each other. She also told her how much she missed having Sakura as a friend and that Sasuke was awesome and everything but wasn't worth them fighting over him.

Temari slowly began to understand that Ino cared a lot for her friends although she tended to disguise her caring, in contrast to herself who acts very tough with the ones she cares about. It was the same kind of hidden caring that Temari had allowed to take over and in that moment believed she could trust Ino and if Ino wanted to she could trust Temari in return.

"What a loser"

Temari replied to Ino who didn't know what Temari had meant and gave the Sand kuonichi a confused look.

"This guy, Sasuke, sounds like a loser"

Temari clarified but immediately regretted doing as Ino agreed with what Temari had said, but while she was smiling her eyes began to flow with tears of obvious heartbreak. Temari was taken aback but knew this pain very well. Temari tried to soothe Ino the best way she knew how, which was a "Kankuro" hug.

At first, Ino had no response to the sudden hug. She sat there upset with crying in front of a near stranger, but Ino found herself to be safe in the strong woman's arms. Ino put her arms around her and allowed herself to cry even louder. Ino poured her heart out and Temari listened to everything this girl had to say.

She continued sobbing and Temari simply continued to hold Ino in her arms, telling her that everything would be alright. Temari wanted to share her past with Ino but locked away her words for the time being. Ino was the one in the desperate need to express herself and she suddenly felt very protective towards the blond kuonichi. When she figured out why she was feeling this way she discovered that she had made her first friend.


	10. Like an open Book

Shikamaru returned home only to find his mother ready and waiting for him. He didn't know that she knew that tonight was the night of 'the event', because to his luck Yoshino had run into Chouji's mom and she had told her all about Chouji's planned 'dating scene'. When she saw him she began demanding he should buy some new clothes.

"Well we're going to have to go get you a new outfit for tonight aren't we?"

Shikamaru was confused, was this a new way of her toying with him to get her own way.

"Don't worry mom, I'll find something old, it's not that big of a deal." he said cautiously.

"No it's alright I'll buy you something new to wear, I'll go right now actually. Did you want me to pick up anything else for you Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru couldn't believe his ears; _mom's being nice to me? Has the world spun around without me noticing? Maybe this was a trick she was testing out and I happened to be her first victim._ He hesitated to answer her.

"Could you pick up some snacks for Chouji? I'm going with him and some of my friends to watch the eclipse tonight."

She was thankful that he told her the truth and replied "I know all about that sweetheart, no problem, be good, I'll be back in a couple of hours. I love you!"

Shikamaru was stunned. Needless to say he had no words to speak when there was a knock at the door and Shikamaru went to check who was there.

"Hey it's just Chouji. Can I get ready here?"

"Yep. I'm going to be in my room Chouji, just come in when you are rea.." Chouji entered his room before Shikamaru could finish his sentence.

Chouji was happy to be at Shikamaru's house, he had planned to have everyone at the top of the hill watching the eclipse together, hopefully making some magic. He had invited Team Kurenai, Team Yamato and Team Guy to join them on the hill and they had all agreed to. As he was thinking back on the day's events he found himself blushing over the fact that he had gotten a kiss on the cheek from a girl, and not just any girl, it was from the powerful Suna kunoichi Sabaku no Temari. He was shy and smiling to himself when Shikamaru walked in front of him asking what he was thinking about.

Of course Shikamaru knew what Chouji was thinking about, he was thinking about the kiss. Shikamaru could read Chouji like a book and found it quite amusing.

"Hey Shikamaru, do you still not accept your feelings for Temari or would it be okay for you to see her with another guy?" Chouji asked with a gloomy tone.

Shikamaru never expected to her Chouji ask such a question and looked at Chouji with one eyebrow raised

"I'm only asking because if you don't act on those feelings that I know you have for her, she's going to be taken away from you and you will blame yourself forever because you didn't even try to claim her as yours."

Shikamaru thought about the age difference and the distance between Temari and himself and somehow Chouji knew he was thinking about those things and answered

"I know she's a little older than you, but she doesn't treat you like a little child and the distance wouldn't be an issue if you only made an effort! I know Temari has often come to Konoha on official business and has never turned down a mission for our village but you haven't gone to Suna since you saved Temari from that ninja that kidnapped Matsuri!"

Shikamaru felt a jolt in his body, _is Chouji reading me like an open book too?_ Chouji always found a way to tell Shikamaru exactly what he needed to hear. Chouji wanted his friend to wake up and accept his feelings for her already.

He had observed Shikamaru as he visited him hospital for the first time after his team was unable to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha. Shikamaru had changed, become more mature, focused and stronger. When Shikamaru told him he had cried in front of a girl Chouji realized that thanks to this girl Shikamaru's life was spared and was already involved in his life already. He always recognized the signs of attraction for others but never for himself, which was a shame, but regardless of this he never gave up hope.

That was one of Chouji's best qualities, the unshakable hope he had for others. And he knew that one day the one who he had feelings for, would one day return his feelings and he was fine with waiting for her. Patience is one of the things Chouji learned through his friendship with Shikamaru and applied to his everyday life.

"So you will you confess to her tonight?" Chouji asked in a hurry.

"Sheesh Chouji, relax and you know you got her to kiss you first, so maybe you have a chance with her" Shikamaru said jokingly. Chouji replied surprised

"You really think I, me, I have a shot with the Sand Princess?" obviously Chouji didn't get the joke.


	11. The Hidden Memory

Ino had calmed down and Temari had walked the girl home. Ino thanked Temari for spending time with her today, she felt a lot better and wanted to make sure Temari knew they were now friends. She had even given Temari a small token of friendship, a bead bracelet she made by hand.

Temari happily accepted the gift and wore it straight away, but she felt guilty that she had nothing to offer Ino in return but promised to make her a gift before she'd leave the village. On that note they said goodbye to each other and then Temari realized that she had forgotten to get the snacks, so she ran towards the store once more.

Gaara was wondering what had become of Temari, he had enough time to rest his body but he never ever slept, he was dressed and was bored of waiting. The moment he heared Temari waltz in the door he ran to her, Gaara offered to help her carry the shopping bags inside.

There were so many bags filled with what appeared to be snacks, a single bag of clothing and a few bags of alcoholic drinks. Temari was old enough to buy her own alcohol and was a responsible drinker, so that's why Gaara allowed her to drink. She dropped all the bags except for the clothing one and sprinted for the bathroom to get ready. This amused Gaara, who began to shake Kankuro trying to wake him up.

Temari was pleased to have met Ino at the store; she quickly had her shower, allowed the water to soak her top to bottom and felt at peace, she ignored the pain in her hands and jumped out and dried herself, quickly doing her hair and getting dressed in the outfit she and Ino had decided on. She even let Ino talk her into buying a new pair of shoes to match the outfit, and a handbag to boot. Kankuro started knocking on the door then and nagged Temari to hurry up for he needed to get ready too.

"Hey you've had hours to get ready Kankuro so don't bug me!" she yelled out and continued to prepare herself.

Kankuro got tired of waiting for the bathroom so he went to talk to Gaara and after twenty minutes she stepped out of the bathroom. Kankuro and Gaara had no words for how mesmerizing Temari looked at that moment; the pair just stared at her for a while. Temari blushed; she was not used to this attention from her brothers.

"Do I look alright or do I need to borrow one of your outfits?"

The siblings broke away from their trance and began to laugh at Temari.

"You look beautiful, Mari" Gaara smiled at her with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"I agree" said Kankuro and then hit the showers and Gaara decided it was time to tell Temari the truth about the real reason behind visiting Konoha together.

Gaara made sure that Kankuro was in the shower before he asked to speak with Temari. She grabbed a few drinks and sat down by the dining room table. Temari assumed that Gaara would simply do his usual younger brother speech 'you know don't do anything reckless, you're a representative for Suna, and so on.' But this time was different; Gaara's facial expression had changed from being content to looking sad; Temari increased her sips. She could feel the alcohol pierce her throat from the inside and she knew whatever this was, wasn't good.

After a silence that seemed to go on for much longer than it needed, Temari asked Gaara what he wanted to discuss with her. Gaara gave her a stern look and began to explain himself.

"The council has decided that the bond between the neighbouring land of Fire and Land of Earth has become turbulent. Furthermore the Sand village had to attempt to keep the peace. And the council reached the conclusion of joining the two countries, by marriage."

Temari signalled for Gaara to hurry up and get to the point as none of this was making sense to her.

"Temari, _you_ are the sister of the Kazekage and thus _you_ have certain responsibilities to uphold. The council intends for _you_ to marry a daimyo from Earth country, for _you_ to be the link between the two nations."

Temari's mouth fell open.

Her mind was overcome with thoughts.

No words to speak.

She was simply empty.

"Wha..b-but how could this be Gaara? Don't I have a say in this? You expect me to just stop everything and hand over my life to.. another country? How could you think..."

"Listen Temari, I expect you to uphold the peace within our country, however I know that you treasure peace more than anything and therefore if you were given the opportunity, you would do anything in order to achieve this peace. Aren't I correct?"

Gaara spoke with a sad tone and although Temari was reluctant, agreed with Gaara, just not the part of marrying someone, to give up her life for another country.

"There must be another way..please..Gaara, I beg.. of you?"

Temari began to feel that familiar sting of tears beginning to form in her eyes. She never allowed herself to cry in front of anyone especially younger brother; she knew she had no right to. Especially after all the pain Gaara had suffered with being a jinchuriki. She looked toward the ground slightly bowing her head hoping that Gaara wouldn't see her emotion.

Gaara noticed Temari's eyes glistening and was caught off guard. He had never seen Temari crying, ever. Until this exact moment he believed she was incapable of crying, like him. He knew that being a Kazekage would be a lot of work but didn't expect to have so many responsibilities to Suna as he began to feel the heavy burden and shook his head slowly.

"This is the only way Temari, you have no choice but to agree with this proposition and the ceremony will be held in less than a month" Gaara began to lose the confidence in his words but caught himself

"I'm sorry Temari.".

Her world crumbled.

Her life surrendered.

She felt so cheated although she wanted to agree with Gaara, she was overwhelmed with confusion. Sure, she hadn't been in love with anyone else; there hadn't been anyone she was attracted to either, except. She thought of Shikamaru for some reason beyond her and attempted to block him out of her mind. _What is he doing in my thoughts?_ She struggled with her reasoning.

_- -memory flashback- - _

Temari recollected her hidden memory about the time when the sand siblings were ordered to assist the now allied nations. They were to to aid Shikamaru's team to retrieve someone named Uchiha. It didn't matter who it was, all that mattered to her was reaching the boy who let her win the final round of the chunin exams. Thinking far ahead of Temari he lured her into a trap and captured her in his shadow possession jutsu and just as she thought the game was over for her Shikamaru gave up claiming that he ran out of chakra. At that moment she saw him differently from that little scrawny brat she saw before the beginning of the chunin exams and she had never before been so fascinated by a single person in her life.

He was a mystery to her, something that she desired to uncover for herself. Temari had reached Shikamaru just in time to save him from the enemy Tayuya. She was a little concerned to see Shikamaru almost being killed by her but when she swooped in to ask for the enemies' abilities, her initial concern for the boy was quickly replaced with aggravation as he told Temari the enemy was incredibly strong and didn't seem to have faith in Temari's skill at all. With a whip of her fan, she easily defeated the enemy and was proud of herself and Shikamaru seemed to be impressed with her quick defeat. They raced back to the hospital together not speaking a single word. She knew he was worried about his friends and it wasn't appropriate for her to intervene at the time.

- - _end_ - -

_Was it then I began seeing the boy as more than a boy? When I failed to console him with my realistic but necessary words I tried to stop him from making a mistake by giving up being a ninja. Was it when I saw Shikamaru's concerned father scold him and breaking down right of me? What was it about him that captured my interest so intensely?_


	12. The Moment of Weakness

Temari sat motionless in front of Gaara caught in a daze. Kankuro opened the bathroom room and was blissfully unaware of what was going on, jumped out jokinly yelling at his brother and sister.

"I'm so hot and ready to..." when he saw the distress in Temari's eyes. The same sorrowful look she had from that night he had gone to give her the necklace Gaara and him had bought for her, the uncontrollable anxiety within him arose.

_- -memory flashback- - _

The sound of Temari's bedroom door opening was the first time for Kankuro to felt undeniable fear in his mind and body and he looked at Temari who looked more terrified for Kankuro than herself. As their father turned to lock the door saw that Kankuro was inside. His first reaction was to walk over to him but stopped himself from hitting him. He then grabbed Kankuro and forced him up against the wall.

"So you wanted to watch how I treat your worthless sister did you? Don't move or I will kill her" he yelled with his violent tone and forced him to watch as he took his frustrations out on Temari who hadn't squealed at all. Kankuro glanced at his sister and saw absolute fear in her eyes but she didn't make a single sound. Hit after hit, her body became near limp when he picked her up and began a different kind of torture. She somehow had enough strength to snatch the pendant that Kankuro had thrown on to the bed and she tried to hide it from her father. Kankuro's eyes widened in shock as Temari let out an excruciating scream that would continue to haunt his soul for years to come.

Kankuro could do nothing for his sister as she continued to whimper, begging her father to stop. He felt useless and closed his eyes admitting to himself he was nothing more than a coward. Her innocence being crushed so mercilessly right in front of him, he had to do something for her. He needed to act, on his fear for her sake he screamed louder than he ever thought he could.

"GET OFF HER; YOU'RE HURTING MY SISTER YOU DISGUSTING BEAST!"

That scream alone caused Temari's father to get off her and kicked him out of the room. When Kankuro saw the door close behind him, he ran to anyone older for help. He was determined to save her from this sick world of living.

- - _end_- -

Kankuro snapped as he yelled at Gaara

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU SAID TO TEMARI, DO YOU SEE HOW MUCH PAIN SHE IS IN? SHE IS UNABLE TO EVEN..."

"Kankuro calm down" Temari said bluntly.

"I will accept the proposal. Don't fight anymore you two, please. I want to enjoy this time with you and with my..allies."

Temari didn't really want to accept this binding contract, but what were her options, already her brothers were fighting for her happiness. Gaara saw the half of her that treasured peace and Kankuro saw the half that desired freedom.

She decided in an instant, that this was the easy option out of this situation; it would suit everyone, even her, if she allowed herself think that way. Temari excused herself from the dining room table and went to the kitchen to grab the bags that carried the alcohol before heading to her room leaving the two boys stunned to silence in the dining room. Temari knew her limit but decided ignore her mentality. _What's the point in holding back now?_

After a few minutes of silence there was a knock at the front door, Gaara decided to answer the door and hoped that Shikamaru would be able to ease the tension. Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino were at the door, Gaara politely allowed them to come inside but wondered about Chouji and Ino; were they dating?

"Temari, our guides have arrived to take us to the hill, come out when you are ready sis" Kankuro invited them to the kitchen where Chouji was delighted to see the huge range of snacks that Temari had purchased.

"Can I go see Temari?" Ino asked, to which Gaara replied

"I'm sorry but I can't let you see her as she is in her room for a reason, but she'll be out soon, is that alright with you Ino-chan?" Ino melted at Gaara's coolness and the fact that he called her Ino-chan, it was like pure bliss to her.

"Oh by the way Temari bought me some drinks and I believe these are mine" Ino explained as she quickly took a sip of the fruity vodka. The boys didn't seem to care much but Chouji reacted very protectively.

"Now Ino, just please be careful with that stuff, you're not old enough for one and so I forbid you from having more than two drinks alright?"

"Umm Chouji first off you are not my father, secondly I only wanted a few drinks anyway to loosen up a little and thirdly and fourthly Temari only bought me the drinks after I begged her and swore I wouldn't get myself drunk and she only bought me two, so there!" Ino replied as if she had practised that template reply for any situation only to change the names when necessary. Chouji was happy to hear this and opened a bag of barbeque flavoured chips to munch on while they were waiting on Temari.

Temari heard Shikamaru knocking on her door. She smiled as she knew it was him instantly due the laziness of the knock. Quickly she looked into the mirror to see her make up that mostly fine but needed a touch up after she had unknowingly cried a few tears, the rest she needed to hold back with force. She wasn't going to ruin their evening; she wasn't going to no matter what. Temari took a deep breath and put on her smile that meant everything was fine with her and walked towards the door heading to the kitchen.

Shikamaru had been waiting anxiously to see her; he was struggling with his doubts and thinking how he was going muster up his courage to confess his feelings to Temari tonight. When she arrived to the kitchen and he saw her his mind went void. He stood up as gentlemen used to in the olden days when she entered the kitchen and found himself being drawn towards her. The force was pulling him so much that he tripped over the carpet and experienced the embarrassing moment of "looking like a fool when you are about to fall but don't".

She was wearing a simple white V-neck top, with mini black short with fishnet stockings and her rocker gloves. Her hair was in the usual four pig tales but to Shikamaru she was even more luscious then before if that was possible. He slowly approached her when he noticed her eyes were a little red. She then asked him to meet her outside for a little bit and walked to the front door. Shikamaru nodded and followed her suit, leaving Ino with the two brothers.

Temari realized that Shikamaru had noticed her eyes and to save herself from his questioning she asked him to meet her outside because she wanted to talk to him by herself. She hadn't been prepared but she wanted to say goodbye as she knew she wouldn't be returning after this week ended and it was better for her to just tell him in person instead of him hearing the news from his friends. She thought this would be easy, it wasn't.

"So, what do you want Temari?" he was looking at the door knob beside her. She had her back toward the front door and smiled.

"You know, I'm happy to have met you kid! You really did a number on me at the chunin exams." _What I meant to say was I'm in love with you, Nara._

"Are you still thinking about that? Besides I'm not a kid anymore, I'm taller than you if you haven't noticed."

Of course Temari had noticed. He had transformed from a scrawny lazy idiot into a handsome lazy idiot. She looked him into his eyes but he didn't return her gaze. She asked him about the time. Shikamaru told her he didn't know. He was close enough to her to smell his cologne; she had always been fascinated by men's cologne but never admitted this to anyone. Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed and that's when he felt a pair of lips on his own and opened his eyes wide in shock. _What is she?.. I wasn't prepared! _

Temari allowed herself this brief moment of weakness and hoped he would return her kiss however when he didn't, she knew why. The reason was obvious to her that he had never thought of her as anything but bothersome and so she ended the kiss. Temari pushed him away with her two hands on his chest and then told him she was ready to head toward the hill. Temari looked at Shikamaru who had a stunned look on his face. _He didn't grow up to be bad looking at all. Whomever he chooses to be with, will be lucky. _She then ran inside and hugged Ino and this took her brothers by surprise, they had no idea these two had even been on a first name basis.

Temari watched Ino finish off her second bottle which she downed quickly, and they looked at each other smiling defiantly as if they had an unbreakable secret for just the two of them. The boys headed out to the door to join Shikamaru, leaving Ino and Temari alone in the kitchen and Temari revealed she had a lot more alcohol.

"Mari how did you manage to bring these all to the hotel without arousing suspicion?" Ino asked as Temari was beginning to perform hand signals.

"What is that jutsu?"

Temari whispered that she had discovered this jutsu on her own by accident; the minimising jutsu shrinks whatever object wanted to reduce and this would allow her to carry so many items at the same time. She had only shrunk most of the alcohol so Gaara wouldn't be worried about her, with that thought she grabbed the miniscule bottles and placed them into her huge new bag.

"Temari are you alright darlz" Ino questioned feeling tipsy; she had never drunk before and was feeling rather happy when Temari replied.

"I've had seven drinks so far but I am bringing all of the bottles with me". The girls locked the room and they all headed for the hill together truly ready for the Eclipse.

**Authors Note:** Yes.. I'm sorry but I've included alcohol in this story! Sake didn't seem to make any sense. And by now I'm sure you've noticed most of the characters are OOC, sorry again.


	13. Healing Old Wounds

It was dark as they were walking up the hill. Thankfully Shino's fireflies had led them safely to the rest of the groups that had already arrived.

"Seriously! Why didn't any of you BOYS think about bringing a freaking torch!" Ino yelled and hit Chouji and Shikamaru and gave Kankuro and Gara an evil glare. The boys all sighed simultaneously which amused Temari.

Temari was slightly uncomfortable in her new shoes. They were stilettos after all and she hoped that the other girls were wearing nice revealing clothing as well just to tease them boys. They had all made it safely to the top of the hill. Temari turned around to see all of the Leaf village's lights; she was entranced and believed that the lights looked like colourful diamonds. Shikamaru caught Temari looking at the city with her rare childish eyes and smiled.

"Oh Kami, Temari you look sexy!" Sakura blurted out with wide eyes. As everyone turned to look at Temari, Ino quickly jumped in.

"Hey everyone, Ino baby is here with her sex appeal, there's plenty to go around alright boys?"

Temari gave Ino a thankful smile, she wasn't used to this much attention and Ino on the other hand loved it. Ino knew this about Temari and that's why she selflessly offered to distract the attention away from her and with the attention on her began...

"Alright we are here now, how about you and Chouji now go set up the snacks alright! I see Lee carried up a massive table so put everything there.." _Great_ Shikamaru thought to himself,_ Ino's already bossing us around_.. "and Neji can set up some of the lanterns and Gaara can keep Naruto away from anything electrical and..." _I'll just keep staring at her like I don't care "_Tell Kiba to see if he could get us some music and Shino can get the blankets ready for sitting on, oh and of course make Sakura offer everyone a beverage!" Ino was a very demanding persona indeed and when she gave her orders to her boys, they would make sure to get it done precisely how she wanted things done.

"WHAT?" Sakura exclaimed "Why do I have to be the bartender all of a sudden? And why did you single me out like that I am a fem.."

"Oh Sakura I thought you had realized that you are one of the GUYS with your massive strength and all" Ino fiercely answered back ready to challenge Sakura's unwilling defeat.

"Ino-Pig" "Billboard Brow"

"Umm excuse me you two" Temari grabbed the two girls by hand and told them not to be so childish towards each other. "You are better than this, acting so immature towards each other! I won't tolerate this behaviour and you both know I will not hesitate to challenge you into sparring with me for punishment."

She stared at the two girls who simply stared back at Temari at a loss for words. Ino knew that Temari was attempting to fix her strained relationship with Sakura and was thankful to her and decided to "grow up" and apologized without delay to the two of them. Sakura was astounded to see Ino actually apologizing to her, but it felt like the tension had been lifted. She smiled towards Temari nodding her head in agreement. Temari was happy that her plan worked, now she needed to get her second plan into motion.

"Good, now Sakura could you fetch the other girls and meet me by the tree over there, if the boys ask what is happening just tell them that we are ...umm.."

"powdering our noses!" Ino butted in smiling defiantly.

"Um 'kay then. Be right back." Sakura replied with doubt evident in her voice.

Ino and Temari had a quick catch up chat and Ino bear hugged the sand kuonichi. Temari stole a look at Shikamaru who had begun to walk over to the two of them, before being stopped by Naruto who was being his-usual-goofball-self. She was smiling at Shikamaru's failed attempt to approach them, but then she suddenly snapped herself out of her thinking and joined the anxious girls.

Tenten had been unwilling to be anywhere near Temari, she was still holding a grudge against the Sand Princess since she defeated her in the phase three of the chunin exams, a few years prior. Temari understood Tenten's resentment and wanted nothing more than to mend the bitterness that had been created during the Chunin exams. She knew exactly how it felt to have hate eat away at people and didn't want that for Tenten, who looked like a decent girl. She chose to bridge the gap.

"Look Tenten, I'm sorry for treating you so badly back then, I really was heartless and I hope someday you can forgive me. I vow to protect this village as well as my own, please believe me."

Temari bowed to the girl who didn't know what to say. Tenten had a weakness when it came to caring for others.. and this one sentence had been one that she wanted to hear from the girl who almost killed her. Temari looked into Tenten's eyes which were filled with compassion as Temari offered her hand to the girl. Tenten grabbed her hand and shook it gleefully and at that time Temari recognized that they were on friendlier terms with one another.

"Just so you know Temari, I expect you to protect both villages from now on" giggled Tenten and Hinata smiled towards the two of them, admiring Temari's influence that offered sudden peace.

"Alright ladies, here is what we have brought you" Ino revealed a large range of alcohol.

"How in the heck did you carry this up the hill Temari?" Sakura was nearly squeaking, doubt obvious in her voice and was comparing herself to Temari.

"It's a secret" Temari whispered.

The boys were in the process of setting everything up just as Ino had ordered. They didn't mind because there were so many of them compared to the girls and Shikamaru refused to let the women do anything when there were men around.

He had wanted to be beside her, but for some reason unknown to him, she was colder than ever. _Why did she kiss me and now she's acting like a total psycho? _Unapproachable. Before Shikamaru could continue to reason the behaviour of Temari, Lee was asking him if Ino was his girlfriend.

"Lee are you serious? There is no way I could date a childhood friend and a member of my own team!"

"Why not" Lee was truly curious and wanted to know.

"She's like a sister to me Lee. I mean we've been friends for far too many years for romantic feelings to bloom overnight. I had a crush on her b..."

"I knew it" Naruto exclaimed nearly jumping for joy. _What's that clown thinking? _Shikamaru was beginning to worry.

"You should tell her. I'm sure that she'd be happy to hear that you return her feelings." Naruto covered his mouth when he figured out what he had blurted out, without thinking. He felt the tension rising in the air surrounding him and quickly dashed towards a bush saying he needed to relieve himself.

Shikamaru stood there frozen. Did he really just hear Naruto say that Ino had feelings for him? He rejected the idea of being with Ino. He didn't want her to care for him like that. He was flattered, she was a beautiful girl, but he didn't return her feelings and he sighed heavily when he knew that this was going to burden to his confession.

"Akamaru where are you boy?" Kiba roared

"He's over here with us, relaxing!" Kankuro replied sounding cheery. He was happy that Akamaru was sitting beside him and Gaara. They had nothing to help the boys with so they were simply sitting there feeling gloomy until Akamaru lay next to them.

"You're very loyal to Kiba aren't you boy?" Kankuro wondered if this animal would allow him to... Akamaru placed his head underneath Kankuro's hand and allowed Kankuro to stroke his fur. Gaara stared but kept his distance. Kankuro could feel Akamaru's smooth fur and he silently thanked Akamaru for allowing him to pet him. Kiba, impressed with Akamaru, continued tinkering with the stereo.

The girls were hesitant about drinking being underage and surrounded by boys, but they trusted each other and their boys. Hinata was first to open her bottle and took a sip much to the surprise of Sakura. She believed Hinata would be the first to flat out refuse to drink, yet here she was and..

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be.. the drink is fruity and sweet" Hinata murmured with a blush creeping onto her cheeks. This convinced the rest of them to try at least, and if they didn't like the taste they would refuse the drink.

"Temari you have different drinks to ours, why's that? Hinata whispered with her soft voice.

"It's more concentrated than yours ladies, I've been drinking for a while and.. anyway we have to get back to the boys soon so drink up alright" she skulled back the drink with no hesitation.

"Alright.. I-I'm ready to ha-ave me som-e fun" Ino had drunk too much.

"How many have you had woman!" Sakura was a little concerned, as far as she knew Ino had only had this one drink and was already drunk from it!

"I'v-ve had 'bout.. *counts* four, yeah four now"

Tenten allowed a laugh to escape from her lips at Ino. She was acting so silly and Tenten was amused by her, she stared at the other girls when they all were giggling together. Temari was pleased. Ino had been the one to plan this while Temari had been opposed to the drinking, but due to Ino's powerful persuasion agreed to buy the alcohol. She saw that Ino wanted everyone to have an enjoyable evening and was one of her strange way of caring for her friends.

She didn't want this feeling to leave her. She was feeling so happy on the outside, she wanted to, so desperately beg them for comfort the raging emotional storm that was tearing her apart inside but she knew this would be her final night out like this. With her freedom, surrounded by the people she cared about and that was more important to her than herself for the time being.

Kiba was dumbfounded as he uncontrollably blinked. He stood up straight. He sniffed in the direction of the girls. He blushed. Neji noticed his abnormal behaviour and asked what was wrong with him.

"Neji, don't tell the others.. but.. err.. the girls... they're... drinking.. drinking alcohol"

Neji was completely taken aback. His violet eyes seemed to come alive and he found a grin sneaking onto his lips.

_What is he thinking?_ Kiba wondered but put his finger to his lips and signalled Neji not to gossip about this to which Neji nodded his head and helped Kiba with the stereo.

Naruto had come from hiding and Shikamaru grabbed him by his shirt and forced him to finish their previous conversation. Naruto was reluctant and tried numerous times to change the topic, but Shikamaru wouldn't let him. Accepting his failure he began spilling his guts and Shikamaru's eyes widened.

**Author's Note:** OMG stilettos can you imagine them? XD Much love 3


	14. Force of Habit

Temari watched over the girls as they continued to drink. They were all acting loopy now and seemed relaxed and giggly. Temari asked if they were alright and they responded with a big simultaneous 'YES', which caused Temari to laugh uncontrollably.

"My lovelies, it's time to return to the boys, it's been far too long and they will be wondering how many noses we have, as told them we were powdering our noses" she said smiling with her pride and the girls agreed with her but had to burst into laugh once more.

"Ready?" she asked them and they gave her silly looks and told her not to worry and relax and join them having fun. _So they noticed I was holding back huh? _She blushed and nodded.

"Sorry force of habit, I guess"

"I know Temari. You're extremely protective of your brothers, I've seen you. And now you are protective of us and we appreciate your concern, but allow yourself to be young again and have fun with us alright?"

Sakura was standing beside her and her words seemed to pierce through Temari. Sakura then placed her hand on Temari's shoulder and smiled toward her. Temari nodded with a blush forming on her cheeks.

"Oh Kami, Temari you are so kawaii when you blush!"

"You are so cute right now! Can we keep you?"

Tenten and Hinata were over excited to see Temari blushing so fiercely. They wanted to know Temari more and more and were fascinated by her. Ino decided to break the unwanted attention away from Temari and mumbled something that Temari couldn't understand when out of the blue Sakura hugged the blond girl.

"I've missed you too, Ino-chan"

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan"

They talked for a little while with tears in their eyes. Temari felt proud and clapped her hands for the two of them. Sakura and Ino opened their tearful eyes and looked at Temari, who was still clapping.

"I'm glad you two are back to being friends. Remember that you won't always agree on things but you need to rely on each other, that is one of the reasons why you must cherish this time, it might run out one day. Now we'll give you a few minutes to clean up your make up and then we'll go back to the boys alright?"

Sakura and Ino looked at each other and nearly squealed in horror.

"Your make up is smudged let me fix it for you" Sakura told Ino with a final tear sliding down her cheek and smiled.

"I'll fix yo-ours too" Ino managed to mutter.

"No thanks! I'll have Temari fix mine as she's the only whose still not affected by the alcohol" as she finished her sentence she winked at Temari who winked in return, as she walked closer to the duo.

Gaara was bored. He had been sitting still for an hour and wondered when the eclipse was going to appear. Kankuro was equally as bored. Akamaru had fallen asleep and Chouji was eyeing up the table filled with snacks. Shikamaru finally called the boys over and asked them to check up on the girls.

"It's been over an hour guys, I'm worried"

Within a few minutes the girls had all returned. Shikamaru noticed they were a little pink in the face and walked a little.. off balance but didn't push for the reason. He really couldn't be bothered with any kind of arguing.

"It's about time" he smiled towards Temari who looked at him with her deviant smile.

"Sorry Lazy, we had a lot to talk about with each other, you know girl talk? You wouldn't be interested in it, really. So yeah we are back and ready to have some snacks"

"Wow, look at the place it's so inviting" Sakura was surprised to see the boys had made an effort.

"I worked the hardest" Lee announced and Tenten simply hit him on the back of the head. Shikamaru found his way over to Temari, surprising her.

"Shikamaru what do you want?" Temari asked with her cold brush off tone.

"Aren't I allowed to stand beside you woman?" Shikamaru was slightly offended but enjoyed the view.

"Umm of course, it's a free country after all..or something like that. Anyways I'm hungry and I'm going to the snack table, excuse me" she ditched without giving him any time to respond. She hadn't mean to act like this with him, but it really hurt to have him reject her. Temari knew she had been stupid and didn't need him to confirm that he didn't love her.


	15. The Eclipse

Chouji had watched the girls as they snatched most of the snacks within an instant. He laughed gently, because he was happy to see them actually eating. He hadn't felt sad for the snacks that he didn't get to consume, he was happy that for once he wasn't the only one munching. He also noticed the girls acting just a little bit more open toward everyone than normal. If he was being honest with himself he liked the change. Maybe tonight he could muster up the courage to confess his feelings to his long time crush. _Just maybe._

Neji stared at the girls. And he stared at one in particular. His teammate Tenten. When he approached her, she grabbed his arm and pulled him close. At the moment she had grabbed him and the way she did with such confidence, Neji felt a flush of emotions and tried to hide his embarrassment. His logical thinking seemed to diminish and for the first time he had seen her as something more than a simple teammate, he had seen her as a girl. As he stood beside her feeling like an accessory, he wanted to impress her, he wanted to hold her, he wanted to claim her, _as his girl._

Kiba had been entranced with Hinata, she was always so small and he always felt the need to protect her. He had accepted the fact that she was in love with Naruto. It had hurt a great deal when he realized her constant fainting and blushing was because she was infatuated with another boy, however he never left her side. He had been there to watch her crumble before him as she realized that Naruto didn't return the feelings she had for him and he had waited patiently for her to recover. He smiled when she approached him, smelling sweet as strawberries. She had pulled him towards her, whispered to his ear and he had blushed instantly. He wished he could tell her how much he loved her, _every ounce of her._

Naruto had known that Sakura was obsessed with Sasuke. He knew that she would never be his. Every attempt he made to ask her out or impress her, he would fail impressively. When Sasuke left the village crushing her heart, he had promised to fix it for her. He would give up his life for her; she meant so much to him. Naruto had learnt to dismiss his feelings but hadn't learnt to let go. Every day he would train to be strong to bring Sasuke back to her, but it was slowly destroying him inside. Sakura smiled at Naruto and he walked over to her when she had asked him to hold her cake. He looked at her and gave her the annoyed look. _I would do anything for you, you know._

Shino felt left out like always, but at least he was with Kankuro, Gaara, Lee and the newcomer Sai which had arrived later than the rest of his team. They were simply talking about old missions and they remembered the time at the Chunin exams and began to laugh about it.

Thinking back to that time was not what Gaara had wanted to do and dismissed himself from the group. He walked towards one of the blankets that lay on the ground and lay down, looking at the stars. He was happy that the Leaf village ninja hadn't treated him like royalty. He wasn't any different now.

Kankuro looked at Temari. She was alone by the snacks table. _Where was that lazy boy Nara?_ Kankuro knew his sister had taken a liking to that lazy good for nothing twit a long time ago but he never forced her to admit it openly. He wanted her to be happy; she deserved to be after everything she had endured. He walked up to her and asked if she was alright. She replied with a slow yes and then he realized Temari was drunk. When she was drunk she would still always be in control of herself but if she kept pushing herself, she would get a little unresponsive or slow.

Kankuro knew this from experience. When he was younger he watched his sister turn to alcohol for comfort when Gaara rejected her and refused to have anything to do with her. He never shared with his brother the ordeal she went through, which he always regretted not doing. Kankuro wanted so badly to pick up the pieces and fix everything, but was unable to now. After giving her some water he took her hand. When she responded with a slight ouch, his protective instinct kicked in. He looked at her with suspicion and continued to lead her towards Gaara.

She lay down beside Gaara and asked when the Eclipse was coming. Temari was feeling the effects of the alcohol. She was fighting against it. At least she knew that she had the control over her inner struggle. With that thought, everyone went to a place that had a blanket on the ground and stared up at the sky. _It was here._

Shikamaru had wanted to talk to Temari all night long. In all seriousness why was this proving to be so darn difficult. When Ino had reached out for him and forced him to stare into her eyes he knew that she was drunk. He asked if she was well enough to watch the eclipse, he didn't want to miss it; the next time it would appear would be many years from now. Ino asked him to carry her to the others which he did, he picked her up in his arms like a knight saving a damsel and she had nuzzled into him, kissing him gently on the neck. He had panicked, he rushed toward the others and put her down beside Chouji and decided he would sit up straight. _What the hell Ino.._

The Eclipse had begun. They were all amazed at the sight they had witnessed. When everything went black and they could only see the outline of the moon Shino had instructed his fireflies to dance surrounding them all in a silent magical moment they all would remember for the rest of their lives. Temari lay on the ground in the middle of her brothers; she felt safe with them and had no words to describe the wonderful emotions that she had felt during the eclipse. The stars were falling gently to match a few of the tears that managed to escape from her. _This was what I came here for. _ Temari wiped away her tears and Kankuro gently took her hand in his and for a moment her emotions vanished. _My wish came true. _Gaara took Temari's other hand and with a gentle squeeze, reminded her that he was always going to look out for her. _I will miss you all_.

"Thank you for this moment everybody" she whispered and Gaara felt a tiny itch of gloom invade his heart. He knew his brother and sister were hiding their sadness well and wanted to disappear to an alternate universe where they would always be happy. He let out a small sigh and they all lay there in silence in a moment that seemed to last forever.

Naruto was the first to break the silence when he began yelling at Sai who had apparently tried to comfort Naruto in a peculiar way he did not concent to. Hinata was sitting in Kiba's lap with his arms around her as she patted Akamaru. Shino had seen Hinata kiss Kiba on the cheek and quickly looked away feeling a sharp stab of jealousy. He was profoundly happy for Kiba except he felt the crush in his own heart at the same time.

Chouji had gone to get the snacks that had been left over, leaving Shikamaru with the drunk female. Ino was semi drunk but still could manage to stand on her own two feet as she asked Shikamaru to walk with her. He refused her at first but knew that he had to watch over, especially in her condition. Yamanaka snatched Nara by the hand leading him away from the others with a smug look on her face. Tenten and Neji had ditched the group; Lee couldn't even track them down when he made it his mission to locate them. As he reluctantly admitted defeat he decided to head home with Shino and Sai. Sai had fallen asleep and Lee cheerily carried the ink master considering it to be another challenge.

Gaara and Kankuro had gone to help Naruto pack everything away. Naruto was annoyed when he realized that Lee had left him to carry the table back down the hill by himself. Gaara offered to help him but Naruto refused, telling him that he could carry the stereo and the rubbish bags. Naruto had no fear towards Gaara and Gaara appreciated that quality in Naruto and did what he asked with no hesitation.

Kankuro had been the one to suggest to Temari to find Shikamaru and picked Sakura off the ground. She had fallen asleep just after the Eclipse had passed. Kankuro smirked when he saw Naruto becoming increasingly agitated because of the way Kankuro was holding Sakura in his arms. He was rather enjoying Naruto's jealousy as he would suggestively gaze at Sakura.

"Kankuro, tell Gaara I'll be fine with these guys so you can leave without me. Chouji and I will find Ino and Shikamaru and then I'll return to the hotel, alright?" Temari whispered to Kankuro's ear careful not to wake the pale-pink shinobi. She knew he fancied her; his feelings had intensified when he faught against Sasori and lost. When Sasori poisoned him he knew he would die, the pain was unimaginable and he wished for death to take him. He was so close to losing his life but thanks to this one girl's sharp thinking and swiftness she had saved him.

"Be careful Kankuro, I love you" she kissed his cheek and ran towards Chouji who offered his arm to her. _He really was a gentleman this Chouji_ Temari thought to herself as she locked her left arm to his. The alcohol had wore off and she was happy to know that Chouji and her could have a little chat before she had to go back to the hotel and with that thought away they went.

"Chouji, do you like Ino?" Temari had seen the chubby ninja trying to guard the blond shinobi throughout the night.

"Is it that obvious?" Chouji asked blushing and raising his finger to his cheek.

"I think it's sweet, you really ought to tell her about your feelings, I think she is over Sasuke for good" she had meant every word. This Sasuke had torn two best friends apart, not willingly but still..he never picked a girl and that was a reason why all they had left towards each other was resentment from the many years of rivalry. From what Shikamaru had told her about this Sasuke character was that he was obsessed with revenge and became an avenger, then it dawned on her who Sasuke was. He was the same boy who chose to join Orochimaru and it was Shikamaru's first mission as a squad leader to retrieve him...

"Really? I thought she would never get over him, but I'll admit she does seem happier now tho. Shikamaru and I have always looked out for her, but she never really notices me. How do you think..do you honestly believe I have a chance of being with her?"

"I do, without question. You're a great friend to her Chouji..and you're very important to Shikamaru too" opting to change the subject slightly she added "Can I ask you a favour Chouji-kun?"

"Of course Mari-chan! Anything, so what'll be?

"It's not really a favour but it's more of a secret, would you mind listening to me? I haven't shared it with anyone and it's kind of burdening me." She spoke looking directly into his eyes.

"What kind of favour is that?" He laughed and smiled "I'll be honoured to listen to ya so Temari, spill your guts."

As she told him she had been trying to perfect the one's life reincarnation jutsu his smile faded away. He didn't understand why she would take it upon herself to master such a jutsu. He interrupted her "What good is it if you lose your life in the process Temari-chan? Honestly this is making me sick!"

"Sorry Chouji I didn't mean to make you sick, but it feels better to have someone know my secret, it's the reason why I fainted today. I was stupid to try and master it alone, I promise I won't use it unless I'm desperate" she spoke to him with no doubt in her voice. "I can even heal animals! I healed a cat the other day!" she added with a smile.

"Now that's something to be proud of! I love animals but my favourite animal has to be doves, especially white ones. I've always wanted one or at least to fly like them. You know white doves represent hope? And did you know that if you do a good deed for a dove I've heard they might repay you with a single wish" Chouji replied with a squinty eyed smile and tickled Temari in her side. She laughed and bear-hugged him. "You're awesome Chouji, I've really come to like you."

Chouji stared back at the beautiful kind woman and wondered why Shikamaru didn't claim her as his already and with a slight stutter he said that Shikamaru was a lucky boy to have found her

Temari looked back at him. He really had no clue that Shikamaru didn't feel anything for her, did he. She wanted to go home and rest, it had been a long day after all..

"Now where could they be?" she turned to her front beside Chouji.

"Oh, so that's where they are.. Let's go to..." Chouji lost his words and Temari became immobile.


	16. Frozen in Time

Shikamaru was irrated, he had watched the Eclipse and been amazed at the sight of it but everything else that could have gone wrong with the night did! Ino had been tripping over every single step of the way when he decided to carry her, in bridal style no less, to where she wanted to go. His thoughts were on Temari. She had looked so gorgeous even with her sad eyes; to him she had looked vulnerable and he...

He wanted to ask why she was upset.

He wanted to ask why she had been so distant.

He wanted to ask her so many questions.

Ino interrupted his thinking when she asked him to put her down. He obeyed without delay and raised his eyebrow toward her. _What is her deal? We really should be getting back to the others before.. _

"Shikamaru, we've known each other a long time. Do you remember when I was so heartbroken to hear the news that Sasuke had decided to leave the village? And I was terrified to hear about Chouji who was injured so badly he needed to be admitted to the hospital? Do you remember what you did for me?" Ino had spoken very carefully making sure to pay attention to Shikamaru's every move. She wasn't under the influence anymore and was back to her-tipsy-carefree-self.

"Um, I didn't really do much Ino" he replied with confusion.

"You..you were there for me when I needed you, that's what you did" Ino had taken a few steps in his direction and was approaching him slowly.

"After that incident there were days I found myself thinking about you in ways I shouldn't have..because we were on the same team after all and..because we had grown up together.. I've fought against my feelings for you for such a long time it's been almost unbearable."

Shikamaru could see where this was heading. She was going to confess her feelings, but he couldn't move. It was as if he was caught in his own shadow paralysis and was completely at her mercy. She had moved close enough to him and stood before him with her blue glistening sapphire eyes and she put her hands on his chest. _This is bad Shikamaru get out of here._

"I know that you might not want me, I've always had that thought in the back of my mind but.. just for tonight allow me to have you..." she had put her hands on the back of his neck pulling him down to her when she placed her lips on his.

_He hasn't responded, he hasn't pushed her away and he hasn't broken the kiss. So she must be the one he's in love with._ Temari looked at the couple in front of her eyes betrayed by

_her crush and her best friend_.

After a few seconds she gazed at Chouji who had felt the same stab of betrayal as Temari;

_his crush and his best friend_.

She could sense Chouji's agony and guessed it to be ten times worse than the ache within her own chest. Unable to accept what he saw in front of him, she saw his eyes fill with tears that refused to escape from his eyelids and unable to cope with seeing him so miserable, she ran away without speaking another word. _ In the end, I was the coward all along. Why do I care so much? He's nothing but a lazy boy, not even a man, what was I even thinking... Will Chouji be able to recover from this? _

She ran far enough until she knew she was completely alone and fell to her knees; she tore off her stupid heels and tried to get back up to keep running but her body refused. She tried to calm her breathing but it was hurting her so much simply to breathe, she lay back down on her side, pulled her legs close to her chest and sobbed. Frozen in time.

Chouji hadn't been expecting anything romantic for himself for tonight; he had planned this with and for his friends. He had missed them behaving like kids and hanging out together like they used to at the academy from years ago. The night had turned out even better than he had planned. He had enjoyed every minute of the night, it was a memory he wanted to keep with him for the remainder of his life. Everything had been perfect until this one second.

His world collapsed seeing the girl he loved kissing his best friend truly shattered his heart. They had been Ino-Shika-Chou since they were young, had grown up side by side. He allowed the tears to flow from his eyes as they began to roll down his rosy cheeks. Chouji had waited for Temari to run away, he knew she would, her ache matched his.

He stood there paralysed. _Ino is kissing me? What the heck?_ Ino didn't allow Shikamaru to break away from her. She had wanted this from him for what seemed an eternity. Her desire for him had overruled her mind; she forced his mouth open and let her tongue slide against his bottom lip when he suddenly pulled away from her.

"Hey you two. I'm sorry to interrupt but everyone's gone home" Chouji said behind a smile. _I'll act like I didn't see them together.. I'll act like I'm unaffected by this.. I'll act like I've always acted around them.._

"Chouji what are you doing here! Can't you see we're busy?" Ino sneered.

"Chouji!" Shikamaru was dumbfounded. He was beyond confused as well. He looked at his friend who was smiling with semi swollen eyes, he knew that Chouji had seen the kiss.

"No it wasn't.. I mean.. We were.. and then.." Shikamaru tried not to trip over his words but the words were fighting against each other. Was he meant to apologize to Chouji or scold Ino or excuse himself or what was he meant to do? Everything was so fucked up!

"Don't worry 'bout it man. Temari's gone to the hotel by the way"

That's right he had forgotten about Temari, she had gone back to the hotel? Had she been with Chouji or had she left for the hotel by herself?

"Thanks Chouji, for ruining my evening! You're always getting in the way and acting like you are my father, well no more Chouji, I never want to see you again!" Ino hadn't realized the words she had shouted as they slipped out one by one. She felt ashamed and wanted to take them back but the harm had been done and she was too proud to do so anyway.

"That's fine with me Ino. Sorry to have been such a terrible friend to you all these years. See you round Shikamaru" Chouji looked at their shocked faces, turned and walked away slowly, although what he wanted to do was run away as fast as he could. He wanted to scream at Ino how much he loved her it was like a curse, he wanted to smack his best friend across the head, he wanted to vanish..

"Wait just a darn minute Chouji!" Shikamaru shouted "Ino you and I.. listen we're not gonna happen. I'm sorry but I have feelings for another woman. Chouji's the one who is madly in love with you, that's why he is so protective of you don't you realize? Go after him Ino, go now he needs you!" Shikamaru didn't realize he was still shouting. He wasn't able to hold back his feelings anymore. He wished he hadn't been there with the wrong girl. Now everything was unrepairable.

Ino was stunned. Chouji loved her? She liked Shikamaru and he had feelings for another woman?

"Why should I? I don't love him; you're the one I'm in love with Shikamaru!"

"Ino, do you even know what you feel? What you feel for me isn't love at all"

"THEN WHAT IS IT!" her heart was being shredded causing her overwhelming agony.

"Love is unconditional and uncontrollable. You'd do anything for that other person, you'd die for them. Your idea of 'love' isn't real, Ino. I'm sorry to..."

"Shikamaru you idiot..." unable to continue Ino ran away from him, leaving Shikamaru alone with his thoughts. He had lost his chance with Temari. Maybe he could confess to her tomorrow, he began to walk down the hill, alone.


	17. Out of Reach

Temari lay on the ground till she noticed the stars had vanished replaced with a sky had changed colour. From intense black to pale baby blue to orange and purple. _How long have I been laying here?_ She had tried to get up and keep running but her body and mind refused to allow her. She slowly got up and began walking down the mountain hill, listening to the birds chirping soothing her ache temporarily.

She reached the hotel in record time and Gaara looked worried when she walked in the front door. He asked where she had been, because he had worried for her when she didn't return. She thought of her options and lied of course, saying she stayed at her friend's house. _Is Ino still my friend? _

"Liar you were at Shikamaru's havi..."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Kankuro!" Gaara really didn't want to hear about that kind of stuff..ever! Not about his sister!

Temari skipped a tender heartbeat when Kankuro mentioned his name but replied with a simple no.

"Seriously Mari. Where were you this morning? Your clothes are filthy? Oh I see! You two didn't make it to his house befor.."

"Stop it KANKURO! That's enough I can't take anymore" Kankuro had pressed Gaara's buttons and he was ready to kill his brother.

"You know it Kankuro, well I'm going to shower now" she winked and spoke with confidence, she turned around to face them.

"Oh by the way. I'll be returning to Suna today, I forgot to do something before I left and well.. it can't be helped –but before you two even think about returning with me I'll have you know that you've already paid for the non-refundable hotel room for the next four days and it would be a complete waste of money to have left so early." She closed the bathroom door, turned on the hot water and jumped into the shower with her filthy clothes on. _Why am I doing this to myself?_

"Mari" Kankuro yelled through the door "what do you mean you're leaving, and today! Did something happen?"

"Can you pass on a few scrolls to Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru to me, I don't have time to personally so, I.. I would really appreciate it" her trembling voice dissolved into the shower water.

Kankuro was certainly worried for his sister. He sensed her distancing herself from him and he didn't like it to say the least. Kankuro knew how Temari functioned so pounding on her wouldn't work, neither would bribing her with candy or money, she wasn't that type of girl. However he truly wanted to know what occurred last night, and hoped it wasn't something he would have to kill for.

Gaara was equally concerned but for a different reason. He imagined what happend to Temari last night and it wasn't pretty. In his mind Shikamaru had tried to force her to...but she didn't want agree so they fought and eventually Temari had won. He was going to avoid Shikamaru for a few days until he would calm down. Killing Shikamaru wouldn't make his sister happy, he knew her feelings towards the boy were stronger than friendship but she was unable to act on her emotions. In that way she was similar to him, when it came to 'handling' emotions.

Ten minutes later Temari was dressed in her everyday attire, had packed her bags and began writing her scrolls.

She did NOT want to see Shikamaru, ever again.

She did NOT want to hurt Ino and.

She did NOT want to burden Chouji.

Within minutes Temari finished her scrolls and handed them to Gaara. She knew Gaara would respect her privacy and not read the scrolls whereas Kankuro would and tease her about it for months afterwards.

"Thank you Gaara, I'm off now I love you" "I love you too Kankuro"

"Mari wait.." She ran out the door before Gaara could finish.

"She didn't even have breakfast Gaara."

"I know."

Shikamaru didn't remember how he got home. His dreams and reality had morphed together and it was hard to tell the two apart. _So much has happened in only 24 hours._ Today he was determined to talk to Temari, _no ifs buts or maybes_. He had only been awake for less than a minute but he was already annoyed. He began his daily routine. Yoshino had bought, washed, dried, ironed and folded a new outfit that looked exactly like his older one. The only difference was the stiffness in the fabric and the colours were brighter. He smiled and put his clothes on and walked to the dining room. Much to his surprise Shikaku had completed his mission and was sitting at the dining table.

"Hey" Shikamaru was glad he was back home, maybe his mother might not nag him as much as usual. _Wishful thinking._

"Shikamaru, you're acting very.. active" Shikaku smiled at his son with his eyebrow raised. "or so I've 'heard' from your mother"

"Neah.. nothing like that... hey and what do you mean 'active' anyway?" Shikamaru didn't like his father intruding on his personal life and consumed his breakfast as quickly as humanly possible.

"Oh.. I understand. We'll talk later! Man to man."

"What the.. how troublesome.. Well, I've got to get going"

"Oh before you go Shikamaru" Yoshino called to her son "This arrived for you while you were asleep."

She handed over a simple red and white scroll and had hoped that her son would read it in front of his parents. She was nosey like that. Shikamaru looked at the scroll unsure if he wanted to open it. _Maybe it's a summoning to see Lady Tsunade. Maybe it's a mission. Maybe it's from her. _ He excused himself and left the house. He headed towards the place where he would go cloud watching. Within a few minutes he arrived at his bench and laid himself down to have a quick look at the clouds. It seemed like forever since he had looked at white puffy clouds floating around up there, out of reach.


	18. The Scrolls left Behind

Temari had been running non-stop for three hours when she decided to stop and have a single glass of water. She knew exactly what she wanted to do when she got home and without delay she marched on. Her mind had emptied as she left Konoha behind, it felt rejuvenating almost. She felt stupid for wasting so much time and energy on crying. Sabaku no Temari didn't cry so much when she was in Suna and that's how she preferred it to be. _Tears are an obvious sign of weakness. They show a lack of strength, power or determination. _Why had she cried so much?

Shikamaru had fallen asleep. The clouds had an intense tranquil effect on him. Everything that occurred the day before really wore him out. He realized this when he woke up as he opened his eyes. The sky was dark outside and the wind was stronger than normal. After a moment he stood up and sprinted towards Temari's hotel. _I need to see her! She won't wait for me!_ He didn't expect to encounter Naruto on the way.

"Hey Shikamaru, good to see you. Heard you had a rough night last night"

"Who did you hear that from? It was a good night from my point of view" he lied but he wanted to know who was spreading the gossip and kept running.

"Ino actually she's been looking for you and Chouji today but it was like you both had vanished"

"Yeah, I've been busy y'know.. lots of strategies and..."

"You've always been a terrible liar Shikamaru" Ino added.

_Great when did she get here? _"Hey Ino, seen Temari anywhere?"

"Didn't you know, she's gone back to Suna, left just after dawn"

"WHAT? Do you have any idea why?" he surprised and annoyed. _Why wasn't I told?_

"Well.. didn't you get a scroll this morning?"

_So it was from her after all. Great Shikamaru, just great. "_I didn't look at mine yet, I didn't know it was from Temari, it's so unlike her to send a scroll.." he was curious to find out what she had written to him.

"Can you stop running for a moment Shikamaru please? I only need a few minutes out of your time to have a quick talk with you" Ino was slightly desperate to clear the air with her fellow teammate and it was obvious to him.

Shikamaru stopped running when he reached the store, which protected them from the powerful wind. Naruto had conveniently run a different way and Ino arrived a second after Shikamaru had stopped. _This weather isn't normal, it's getting worse._

"So, who's the 'woman' you like Shikamaru?" Ino asked bluntly. "Please tell me"

"What the! What does that matter now Ino? Seriously, did you ever find Chouji last night?"

"No. I'm sorry I didn't. As I was running I fell down and broke my arm. Did you even notice?"

He hadn't noticed her wearing a sling and felt guilty. However Ino Yamanaka was a medical ninja, so why didn't she just heal herself?

"I know what you're thinking and to answer your brain thoughts, I'm unable to heal bones, I'm still learning after all" she sighed.

"What did your scroll say Ino?" Shikamaru wanted to know.

"Well.. it was a little unusal.. Didn't sound like Temari at all." She surrendered her scroll to him

**Ino-chan**

**I'm sorry to have to rush back to Suna today; there were still lots I had hoped to learn about you however my duties to my country are important and to my heart. I'm truly happy to have gone to the store that day you were there and hopefully I was able to be a positive impact in regards to your friendship with Sakura-chan. I promise I will send you a bracelet via messenger as soon as I get back home. It was important to me to spend this time with you all. Remember Ino-chan, be true and always follow your heart.**

**Sabaku no Temari.**

Even with his IQ that was over 200 he didn't know what he was reading; it looked so silly to him and didn't make any sense. He looked at Ino, who had looked troubled by her scroll as he opened his scroll. _Just what is my troublesome woman up to!_

Chouji had awoken in the early morning and headed straight towards the Team Asuma's old training field. He let out his frustrations and continued to even after he was no longer frustrated.

Gaara had spent the whole day looking for Chouji himself and he was annoyed for having to avoid Shikamaru! He had not been there to guide him as he should have. When he finally located Chouji, he was nearly collapsing from exhaustion from over-training. Gaara then asked Chouji to join Kankuro and him at Ichiraku ramen for dinner to which Chouji eagerly agreed to.

They sat in awkward silence eating their ramen when Chouji decided to break the awkwardness.

"So, what did you think about the Eclipse, it was awesome wasn't it?" Chouji talked with a mouth filled with ramen.

"Yeah it was interesting" Kankuro replied with ramen in his mouth too.

Gaara just stared at the two of them.

"Chouji, my sister asked me to give this to you, but before I do I would like you to tell me what happened last night, after we left you." Gaara almost demanded the answer from him as he held up the scroll to Chouji's face.

"Oh last night? Nothing really, Temari was feeling tired so she left for the hotel I'm guessing. Because she didn't actually tell me where she was going. I met up with Shikamaru and Ino and then we went our separate ways" Chouji half lied. He hadn't been sure what Temari had wanted to keep secret from her brothers and wasn't particularly interested in dying either.

Gaara stared into Chouji's eyes and then handed over the scroll.

"I understand if you don't want to show it to me or Kankuro but if you wouldn't mind.. just telling us the feel of the scroll" Gaara spoke with authority present in his voice.

"Um come to think of it where is she actually? She isn't with you? And why a scroll?"

"I don't know, just read it Chouji" Kankuro had become impatient.

**Chouji-kun**

**By the time you read this I will have left the village. In regards to last night I hope that you don't hold a grudge towards Shikamaru or Ino because at the end of the day they are like your family. I've wasted most of my life being unfriendly and hating others and I don't want you to make the same mistake as I have. Sadly I realize that my words won't be of much help to you as much as I'd like them to. But I would like you to know that you are an amazing friend with a heart of pure Gold and I wish you swift healing. I'm sure Ino has her reasons for doing what she did.. **

**Believe in yourself, follow your dreams and more importantly never ever give up. **

**Mari.**

**P.S: If my brothers ask, don't tell them what I've written to you in this scroll. I know they might be worried but they must respect my boundaries. So I must ask you one more favour Chouji it will be the last I promise; lie to them. Just this once.**

Chouji read the scroll very carefully and found a smile on his lips. Temari had been a real pain to deal with back when the siblings helped attack the Leaf village but since then she had grown into such a gentle caring woman, he was happy that she cared so much about him. Gaara and Kankuro had watched Chouji closely as he read each word, but this boy was a mystery. He didn't show any emotion as he read until he was suddenly smiling.

"I see why you would be worried for her as she left in such a hurry" Chouji spoke with a cheesy smile and tone "However I know that Temari was homesick and that's why she left so quickly" he hoped that this white lie was a good enough reason for her two brothers. He stared at Kankuro, then Gaara, thanked them for the ramen and dashed out of there. Once outside, he felt the storm as it ripped one of the trees out of the ground and he began to feel troubled for Temari who was travelling alone in this dreadful weather.

Gaara and Kankuro paid the tab and began running back to the hotel when they bumped into Shino and Kiba.

"Gaara, Kankuro, you need to collect Temari and get to the underground shelter immediately. This hurricane has already destroyed some of the buildings and trapped some children in the Academy. Hinata's been badly injured and we would appreciate your help to rescue the children. This is a level 1 emergency." Shino spoke clearly with no emotion in his tone.

"Temari isn't in the village, she left this morning! We have to go after her right no.." Kankuro yelled back at Shino turning to look at Gaara.

"Our sister is strong Kankuro, she won't let a simple storm take her down easily. Let's assist these two with the trapped children; our main concern is with Konoha's civilians for the moment and their safety is top priority." Kankuo reluctantly agreed with Gaara, but they had to act like shinobi, not think like worried brothers, and with that they ran with Shino and Kiba towards the collapsed buildings.

**Shikamaru Nara.**

**I had many things to say to you when I arrived to the village yesterday but this is something I really need to let you know. Ever since I first saw you, you have always been a bother to me. I've tried time and time again to figure you out but as much as I try I can't. I've waited for you, but now I'm through with waiting. I cannot believe you as a man, would betray your best friend and with the girl he cares for. I understand Ino and I understand Chouji, but you I have not the slightest clue about. How could you allow yourself to be tempted by her? How could you do this to Chouji? As you know this is the end for my missions, I've decided to accept a proposal from a decent daimyo and will relinquish my title as a Shinobi when I get back to Suna. I think I will miss you a little, you lazy crybaby. Take care of Ino and Chouji and do everything in your power to fix the mess you've made.**

**Bye.**

Shikamaru knew this wasn't Temari, she would never write such foolish words. _Why didn't she wait for me, what is the point in all of this commotion? She is sort of right, I made her wait too long and now I have to try.. _Before he could continue his thinking Ino screamed when a tree had begun to fall in their direction bound for a power pole. Shikamaru reacted with calmness and precision. He grabbed Ino and evaded the tree just in time before the tree fell on the power pole causing a fire to erupt surrounding the two of them instantly. Konoha was in trouble_._


	19. Thinking Only of Others

Temari had been running for over ten hours since her last stop. _13 hours, you can do better than this Temari, I'm almost home.. another hour and I'll be home. _But she was truly beyond fatigued.

She hadn't eaten.

She hadn't slept.

She hadn't recovered.

The morning had been so calming and blue. She had never seen such a pure blue sky. Temari had seen the sky losing its rich colours and felt the wind increase. _What is this, a storm? _ She didn't know she wasn't safe and someone had followed her from Konoha's gates. All of a sudden a female ninja in a black and blue kimono stood before her and she stopped abruptly.

"Sabaku no Temari I presume?" a voice pierced Temari's eardrums. This ninja had a face similar to Tenten's except her brunette hair was tied up in a ponytail and she had deep green eyes.

"Who's asking?" she replied with a cold sharp tone, placing her hand on her fan.

"You're to surrender and come with me immediately. Lord Takubo has given me strict orders to..."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't know who this Lord of yours is and I wouldn't go with you even if my life depended on it"

"You don't want to push me Sand Shinobi. Have you not noticed the storm?"

"What do you mean the storm? Of course I noticed you'd have to be blind not too!" she snapped.

"I am Suihino. My skills are ones I invented on my own out of boredom, I am able use all of the nature elements and combine them. As you can already imagine I can do things you've only seen in your nightmares." She was calm and didn't budge when she saw Temari put her fan in front of her own body.

"I wouldn't even think about fighting against me, you would lose. I can tell you this now and spare you the effort. You look as if you are about to die on me silly Temari." she looked at Temari with unreadable eyes.

"Don't underestimate me woman. I will take you on" thinking about Shikamaru, she picked up her fan and waved it around, but her wind attack missed the ninja as she absorbed the wind into her palms.

"Thank you sand Shinobi. It's delicious, give up you can't defeat me" she spoke with a voice that taunted Temari and infuriated her as she continued walking towards Temari.

"Why are you doing this? How are you controlling this storm?" she questioned as she was walking backwards thinking about her friends.

"I live to serve Lord Takubo and with your hand in marriage he will allow your friends to live"

"WHAT? How will you do that? You don't have the power to do that!" she yelled thinking about her brothers.

"Don't push me. My master has been planning this attack for months to the slightest detail. Currently Konoha is in the middle of a hurricane thanks to me and there seems to be a fire spreading too. They will all perish if I don't stop my Hurricane Crush Jutsu"

"I see so you are responsible for this. I will agree to go with you, just please, promise to stop the hurricane. I swear I will kill you if anyone has been hurt." Thinking about her country she threw her fan to the side and held her hands up in defeat. She knew her body had no energy and her brain couldn't come up with a better solution. At that moment the ninja vanished, turning up behind Temari and knocked her unconscious.

Shikamaru had tried to keep the fire under control but thanks to the wind had the flames had erupted into a massive fire and spread further into the buildings surrounding them. The wind was so forceful it was blinding him and there was nothing else he could do trapped in the fire. He really thought the fire would engulf the two of them, until the storm vanished with a blink of an eye and the sky returned to bright blue. Lee had turned up and begun dumping water on the fires and Gaara helped with his sand drowning the flames and within minutes they had covered all the flames.

"That was close" Shikamaru uttered "Are you alright Ino?" he looked towards her with concern.

"I'm fine, sorry I didn't do much" she spoke with sadness in her voice

"Much? You didn't do anything!" he was joking trying to cheer her up. He knew that she liked to argue with him and it would cheer her up in an odd way.

"Shut up Shikamaru, I thought we were going to die together" she cried. Her tears seemed to hit him and he kneeled onto his knees in front of her. He reached out his hand and touched her cheek.

"Ino don't cry, crying doesn't suit you, everything's okay now, alright?" he had only meant to comfort her when she pulled him by the collar, forcing his whole body to move forward and pushed her lips onto his with her tears flowing endlessly. He allowed himself to kiss her back hesitantly, he didn't know what he was doing but it felt nice to kiss Ino who was comforted by him kissing her in return.

Lee just stared at them. After he did all the work, he wanted a reward of sorts too. He coughed loudly breaking the two of them apart. Gaara stood beside Lee in shock.

"Ino-chan I will have my kiss now" he smiled with his wide grin showing his shiny white teeth.

"Dream on Lee" Ino answered in a sarcastic tone with a blush spreading on her cheeks as she hadn't realized they had an audience.

Kankuro had stayed hidden, but he saw the kiss. He came from hiding and stared at Shikamaru with the angriest look he could make. Gaara simply turned to walk away.

"We're leaving today Shikamaru." He didn't stop to talk and kept his sadness hidden. _This must have been why Temari left so suddenly._ He kept walking signalling for Kankuro to do the same. He turned away and walked with Gaara with equal sadness. _No wonder she left._

Shikamaru felt guilty and foolish when he realized what he had done. Everything he seemed good at was causing troubles for the ones he cared for. He didn't act but helped Ino to her feet and told Lee to take her to the hospital, and then he ran in the direction of Gaara and Kankuro.

"Gaara please stop!" "I need to speak with you"

"Shikamaru you don't want to be around me right now, I'm warning you –back off." Gaara tried his best to keep calm.

Kankuro on the other hand couldn't do what his brother could and turned to face Shikamaru.

"How could you do this to Temari" was all he managed to spit out.

"Wait it's not what you think!" Shikamaru felt like the villain ready to be written out of the screenplay.

That's when Gaara couldn't control himself either and let his sand trap Shikamaru in place.

"What is it then Leaf shinobi, chose your words carefully" he spoke with intent to kill Shikamaru.

"Let me go, I want to go with you to Suna, I need to see Temari, I need to tell her how I feel" he murmured

"Boy I don't even think you know what you're feeling, by the looks of it you and that blonde friend of yours are more than just 'friends' so why would you even bother yourself with our sister!" Kankuro was pissed off and he wanted Gaara to kill him slowly a thousand times over.

"BECAUSE I'M IN FUCKING LOVE WITH HER!" Shikamaru screamed and had tears in his eyes. "I admit I am a coward when it comes to your sister; I've wanted to be with her for many years now, but I never knew how to confess my feelings for her. I wanted to last night but then my friend kissed me in front of my best friend and..." he cried unwillingly.

He couldn't finish what he wanted to say, he was overcome with anguish. Shikamaru knew that no matter how much he wanted to rewind time he wouldn't be able to; he had hurt his best childhood friend, hurt and misled his teammate and hurt the woman he loved with his entire being. The hurt couldn't be taken back it had already happened but he wanted to try and do what Temari had told him to do which was to fix the mess.

"I see. Shikamaru you understand that you and Temari cannot be together." He released the sand from Shikamaru and it was returning into his gourd.

"I understand but I wish to confess my feelings to her and have her choose what do to!" he fell to the ground "If this is marriage is set up for the sole reason to join two countries, a marriage based on lies and force will do anything but join the nations. M-Marriage is sacred and should only be used to join two people who can't live without each other." Shikamaru stood up, wiped his face and looked directly at the Kazekage.

"So this is what it took to make you confess your feelings, well you haven't confessed to her yet have ya?" Kankuro had a smile on his face. "About bloody time!" he walked over to the Leaf ninja and punched him in the guts.

"Don't you ever –ever hurt her or I will not hesitate in cutting off your member, you know which one right? Your p.."

"Kankuro if you wouldn't mind, we really need to go report to Lady Tsunade." Gaara interrupted which Shikamaru was thankful for. "Now. Let's find the Hokage"


	20. The Silly Prayer

Temari woke up in a dark dungeon. She searched herself and found all her weapons gone, except a single kunai she always had hidden by her top thigh. _I'm_ _lucky_ _they didn't find this_ she thought to herself before trying to find out where she was and if anyone else was trapped in there with her. She wasn't surprised that she found herself alone but she did find a bird on the ground. A single white bird she didn't realize it was a dove because she had never seen doves. _Maybe I can .. Is this a messenger bird? _She held out her hands and the bird slowly jumped over to her.

"You're injured aren't you? I will fix you as soon as I can, okay?" Temari spoke with a gentle voice and began making a plan of how to escape before being interrupted by the same ninja who captured her. She put the bird on the ground behind her in hope that woman hadn't spotted the bird. _Please don't make a sound_.

"Did you cease your lame hurricane attack on Konoha?" she demanded to know.

"I am a woman of my word, Temari. I have some food for you if you wish to eat it. You've been sleeping for two days you know" she spoke with a gentle tone; and sounded almost like her mother.

_It's been two days.._ "Thank you for the food, when do I get to meet this Lord of yours?" she looked at the food, there wasn't much, two slices of bread, two apples, grapefruit and a small container of water. She was starving but kept her composure.

"I don't know when, he's instructed me to keep you down here as a hostage; it seems he lost all interest in marrying you."

"If he's lost interest then why won't he let me go? He has nothing to gain from keeping me here!" she was quickly losing her self-control and couldn't take much more.

"I'm not at liberty to tell you Temari, I apologize please eat you must be starving. I'll be back to check on you in a hour." with that the female left the room and locked the door behind her. As soon as Temari heard the door lock she stuffed most of the food in her mouth and began chewing, desperately trying to swallow everything, she really was famished after all.

Temari saw the bird and she gave him her crumbs and the crusts. Since she was young she always hated the crust of the bread. When she was confined in her room as a child, her father would control what food she would get and more often than not all she would get was bread crust. She never blamed her father for being so violent toward her, but she did blame him for her mother's death and allowing himself to become the monster not Gaara.

_- - memory flashback- -_

After Kankuro had screamed for his sister and ran to get help. She screamed at her father, everything that he did wrong for her brothers, never mentioning how much agony he put her through. She was prepared to die, she had wanted to for what seemed an eternity, she was exhausted of this cruel existence. Temari held the butterfly necklace in her hands, she refused to let go of and it imprinted her skin. Her father beat her within an inch of her life and then continued to brutally rape her corpselike body. The door had thrust open and her uncle Yashamaru rushed in to push the Kazekage off his daughter, his anger was strong enough to shatter the chain that held Temari locked in place. He picked up the tiny near lifeless body and ran from the room with her in his arms.

He rushed toward the hospital; she tried to open her swollen eyes to indicate she was by some miracle still alive and he looked at her overwhelmed with sorrow, failing to notice her cruel torment for so many years the Kazekage hid so well. All the while she never let go off the gift her brothers gave her, with her grip as strong as concrete.

"T-tell my brothers.. thank you f-for saving.. me.. I'm their older sister and.. next t..time I'll be the one to save them" her uncle looked on the girl with shock in his heart, how could she have endured so much in her short life and still find the strength to speak. Her uncle was her mother's only brother and was still so young himself. He always knew that the Kazekage was a corrupt leader but never expected him to mistreat his children to this degree. He looked at his niece as she slipped into a coma.

She didn't remember the hospital at all.

She remembered her uncle tears.

She wanted to thank him.

As Temari awoke three weeks later, the Kazekage visited her room without her permission and the nurses tried to ask him to leave but he had the authority in the end.

"I'm here to tell you that no one will ever know about what's happened to you" he looked at her like she was garbage and threw a newspaper at her, and left the room.

She cried endlessly as she read her uncle had been murdered by Gaara after being found to have raped and almost murdered the Kazekage's only daughter. These lies were never going to be anything more than the truth to her village. Her tears continued even in her sleep.

- - _end_- -

Temari held the dove and applied her chakra to the wings, after fourty minutes, the wings were healed. _At least I could help you little one._ She took off her kimono and took off her white undershirt and then pierced her finger with the kunai. She wrote a message to her brothers, if they should ever find this bird. Temari allowed the bird to stretch his wings as she made sure her blood was near dry before folding the fabric together as tightly as possible and minimizing the fabric to a simple ribbon. She quickly dressed herself again and then she began carving a hole in the wall. When she saw the daylight outside peek through, she held out her hand for the dove to land on her finger.

"I healed you birdie and now I require immediate payment. Don't worry it's only a small one so don't look so worried Silly, this is important. Find my brothers and give them my message. Then I'll consider us even" Temari smiled when she realized that she had given the bird a name and then unhooked the hidden aqua butterfly necklace off her wrist. Over the years the necklace had become too small to wear around her neck and she had wrapped it around her wrist to keep it with her, and for the first time in eight years was she was taking it off. She gently wrapped the necklace around the dove's neck twice and found tears forming in her eyes.

"There we go" then she wrapped her message gently but firmly around the birds' leg "You're all ready t-to go" Temari was weeping with her heart breaking. "My brothers live in Suna, it's a village hidden in sand, I hope you can find it little one, I'm depending on you. Farewell" with that she pushed the bird out the hole gently and he flew away gracefully.

"I Wish I could fly away like you, Silly. But I will never fly. Here I am, eighteen years old and already my life is over." she realized she was stupid to run away from Konoha alone. Every single time it was important she would always make the wrong decisions. This would be the death of her; she had no illusions of her brother coming to save her this time. Eventually she accepted her fate. Temari sat in silence alone with her thoughts which were of all her friends, her brothers, her village and her dear mother. She prayed, which Temari would normally never even think about doing, but here she was praying with all her heart that Silly would deliver her message, to someone, anyone who knew her. She quickly lay down on the ground to cover the hole she had carved with her back towards the locked door.

"Temari are you alive?" That female was back and taunting her this time around.

_How many personalities does this woman have? _She didn't reply and pretended to be asleep. Temari knew that whoever this ninja was, she was a threat to her friends and knew what she had to do. She waited for her to approach.

With her eyes closed she could hear the footsteps coming closer with each step until she kicked the Sand Shinobi in her back. That was when Temari quickly jumped to her feet and lunged her kunai into the heart of the female ninja who stood there with shock obvious in her eyes. Within a second tears had formed in her eyes and she began to smile.

"I've b-been controlled by Lord Takubo since he discovered my.. abilities. You shouldn't hav...I am self-destructive Tema..now I must unleash..my fury on Konoha befor.. I..die, I'm s..sorry"

"Tell me how to stop that from happening! Please tell me" her panic evident. "I'll do anything, PLEASE? I know you have a heart hidden in there somewhere! You weren't born like this!"

"Self-s-sacrifice" the ninja whispered and she was slowly fighting against making the hand sings when Temari stabbed herself in her heart and she instantly froze in place.

Temari hadn't predicted this part of her plan but to sacrifice herself was the only option to protect what was most important to her so she took it. Her heart fighting so hard to stay alive it was hurting.

"You and I will die here together." She managed to mutter as they fell down side by side.

Temari looked at the female and smiled with blood pouring from her mouth. The ninja smiled back at her and thanked her; she had hated this life and always serving her corrupt father.

"Me too." Temari managed to spit out before losing the fight to keep her eyes open. She couldn't fight to take another breath and slowly she faded away.


	21. Silly

Kankuro, Gaara and Shikamaru had been allowed to leave the following day after the hurricane struck but only after they made sure the villagers were safe. They wanted to rush but Gaara refused.

"It won't do me any good if you two are drained and we are ambushed! I might be strong on my own but I can't fight for all three of us. Don't be so hasty!" he was trying to give the boys time to clear their minds. It had been three days since the attack and Temari had left the Leaf village. The three of them had walked and rested over night when they had to. Since the night before it hadn't stopped raining., making their travel slightly slower than normal. They were not far from Suna, when they found Temari's fan, abandoned on the side of the road.

_What could this mean? Temari would never leave her fan behind! Maybe she –no this isn't the time for maybes! We need to find her and now! _ Shikamaru grabbed the fan and held it on his back which weighed him down significantly.

"How heavy is this thing! We need to get to Suna right away!" before Kankuro and Gaara could answer him, he had run off and with that they ran after him picking up their speed significantly, their desperation reflected their running.

They reached Suna in record time and gone to the Palace.

She hadn't been seen.

They ran to her apartment.

She wasn't there.

They ran to the graveyard thinking maybe she was there.

She wasn't.

They ran to Kankuro's apartment not expecting much but when they entered his messy room Gaara saw a white dove outside the window on the balcony. He would have normally ignored it but there was something shiny around the birds neck and instantly captured his attention. _A pendant?_ He ran toward the window, gently grabbing the bird with fear creeping into his heart. _I didn't even know she still had this thing! _Gaara gently removed the pendant and noticed a white and red ribbon tied around its leg. He gently untied the ribbon from the dove's leg and opened the small ribbon. It looked to have writing on it but he couldn't make it out.

Kankuro was startled to see the pendant on the bird's neck. It was unmistakable it belonged to his sister and he felt his heart drop when he realized that she had kept it all this time. Instant fear took hold of his body as he realized Temari had learnt how to use the minimizing jutsu, it was a technique he believed only puppeteers knew.

Kankuro looked at Shikamaru who was completely out of the loop. He then began making hand signals and then touched the tiny ribbon ever so gently when it became the normal size of an undershirt top. They all looked in horror as they realized the writing was in blood.

"THIS TOP BELONGS TO OUR SISTER!" Kankuro nearly squealed with tears flowing from his eyes. Shikamaru stared at the brothers and they huddled around the top and read the inscription together.

**For who finds this, please give this to Sabaku no Gaara and Kankuro of Suna**

**My brothers I love you both more than I love my own life. I love Suna and equally Konoha. I love Shikamaru although he doesn't love me. I've accepted that. I've accepted that I will die here long before you can come to my aid. The ninja who kidnapped me is extremely powerful and was to force me into marriage but not anymore. This ninja is responsible for the hurricane that hit Konoha, in exchange for my freedom I gave Konoha theirs and now I've decided to kill her. I won't have her harming anyone ever again. Don't try look for me, I'll be rotting in this dungeon for years to come. Thank you Gaara for giving me a chance to be your older sister. I want you to know I named you when you were in our mother's womb and I've watched you become the greatest leader for Suna than anyone else has been or will be. Kankuro, you saved me in so many ways, you gave me hope when I was in darkness, you gave me a reason to hold on. This time you can't save me even though I wish you could. I wish it hadn't come to this but I need one last favour from you brother. I need Shikamaru to know that I lost my heart to him and I sacrificed myself for the good of both our villages. My pendant, could you give to Ino Yamanaka – she's my first real friend, I promised her a friendship token but I never got the chance to make her one. Chouji must know that I healed the birds wings who delivered this message, and if possible give him to Chouji, I've named him Silly. I will miss you so much. Thank you all for giving me a reason to live, this far. **

**I love you all, Temari.**

"No this can't be... IT'S FAKE" Shikamaru was weeping and lying to himself, he recognized her handwriting from the scroll she had written to him. "W-WE NEED TO GO AND FIND HE..HER!" he fell to the ground unable to breathe it was hurting him so much he wished for death. I_ wasn't able to confess my love! Not been able to save her! She was dying when I was happily travelling with her brothers! She had been in so much torment to surrender! She saved everyone!_

Gaara had discovered himself crying his first tears since he was seven years old and couldn't keep his voice stable "TEMARI WHY!"

Kankuro stared at the blood written top and didn't believe what he saw before him. He had no voice; he couldn't make a sound as he held the pendant in his palm with endless tears flowing. His heart screaming for his sister.

Their tears and heartache melted into each other's.

Hours passed.

Unable to move they all cried until they lost consciousness.

And their tears continued even in their sleep.

The end.

**Author's Note:** And that's the end of the story. I hope you enjoyed the read of my twisted brain xD in reality when I begun this story I had imagined a different ending completely, and I began adding more and more elements into it. Some of it is unnecessary of course but overall.. I think I did a pretty good job!

Much Love , Sae. 16 November 2010


End file.
